Denial and Admiting
by BanngBanngBanng
Summary: All the little love couples, yeah it's cute for now..Until things happen. New people come into the story.. blah blah blah. Bad summary, good story. R&R! FINAL CHAPTER. UP!
1. Plans

This chapter doesn't really go anywhere much, but it's a start(: hope you guys like it. Reviews would be nice. Haha, depending on what you guys say, we'll see how far i take this.

* * *

"Man, just look at 'em," Troy nudged his head towards the girls as he spotted them chattering, "I mean, don't you guys ever wonder what they talk about that makes them laugh so much?" Troy asked the group of guys.

Troy, Zeke, Chad, Jason, Ryan, and a few other guys turned their attention to Troy's random question, as they were talking about plans for their weekend.

"Dude. Chhhhyeeahh," Chad responded with a cocky humorous tone, "I mean hey, where else can the ladies find a stud like this?" Chad said emphasizing his question loud enough for the girls to hear. The guys all laughed while the girls' conversation and laughter stopped for a second. Taylor drew her attention to Chad, returning her glance by winking at her, and she rolled her eyes and turned back to the girls with a slight smile on her face.

"Haha, what are you smiling about?" Kelsie asked.

"Me?" Taylor tried to act innocent.

"No I was actually referring to my lunch.. Yes you!" Kelsie said jokingly.

"Nothing, can't a girl smile while she's with her friends?" Taylor asked putting her hand on Kelsie's shoulder.

"No," Gabriella smiled at her best friend, "Not if you're smiling right after I caught you and Chad glancing at each other. Don't try and hide it, I know you well enough to.."

Taylor cut her off, "Haha, Gabby stop. Now, where were we? Oh yes, well this weekend I thought.."

This time, Taylor was cut off by Sharpay. "Ohh Mrs.Secretive. C'mon Taylor, we've all caught you looking at Chad, like Gabby looks at Troy," Sharpay stated.

"Whaaaaat!" Gabby said surprised. "I do not! Me and Troy aren't like that"

"Girl, you do.." Taylor said to get the topic of her and Chad out of everyone's head.

"Oh my goodness, here we go..," Kelsie muttered under her breath.

"You know, I was talking to Chad the other day in English class Taylor, and all he kept asking me was..," Taylor excitedly cut Sharpay off.

"Chad was asking about me!" Taylor asked eagerly. "Gotcha! Haha. I soo knew it, I so knew you liked him. I mean I am one of the school's greatest actresses, so I knew I could pull of my trick; it's all in the blood. I mean, look at me and my brother.."

"My brother and I," Kelsie corrected her, hoping to end her story before it took up their entire lunch.

* * *

Meanwhile, the guys were talking about a movie that was coming out this weekend. Troy was silent, lost in his own train of thoughts. Luckily he was sitting at the side of the table that was facing the girls' table, so it wouldn't look like he was purposely staring. Troy jumped in and out of the conversation the table was having, but focused more on his personal thoughts as he stared over Zeke's shoulder to see the girls chattering away.

Troy was planning something in his head.. _Okay. So I've already got the day cleared. I got this.. Yep, Ohh, and definitely can't forget about that, I mean, I called last Friday._

He looked up at Chad, who was getting up and looking at his watch, "Awww crap! I forgot Mrs. Romero was supposed to help me with chemistry so i don't fail the class! UGH!"

"What! You're failing!"

"Well, more like on the verge Troy.."

"Go man! or else you won't be able to play the next game!"

"Aiight, I'll see you guys later..." His voice trailed off as he ran out of the cafeteria. Luckily, free period was changed that day to be after lunch, so he only lost about 10 minutes.

"Man, he better pass his exam next week.." Jason said.

"Yeah, we need everyone on the team to be there.." Zeke added.

"Wait, so now that you guys won the championship against West, what game are you playing next week? you already demolished the rest of the school in the district.." Ryan asked curiously. He was somewhat clueless of how the game went, but the guys began teaching him ever since they all started to become friends after the championship and decalthalon. The guys, along with the girls, thought that Ryan and Sharpay spent too much time with each other, so they took Ryan into their group as the girls took Sharpay.

"Well, we heading off to state next week." Zeke said happily.

"Ohhhh I see."

* * *

Back to the girls table..

"I don't stare at him," Taylor blushed, "he just happens to always end up in my way of everything that I try to look at." The girls giggled.

"Denial, haha, Taylor c'mon, admit it. You practically drool over him.." Sharpay said.

Gabriella still was laughing with Kelsie about how Sharpay got Taylor excited.

"Oh my gosh! I totally forgot Mrs. Romero asked me to help her with something during lunch! Ugh! I'm late.. I gotta go guys, I'll meet you guys after school at the fountain in front?" Taylor asked. The girls nodded and she turned and left quickly.

The guys finished their lunch and started up random conversations which lead to silence for a few minutes.

"Hey, let's go talk to the girls, our convos keep dying constantly.." Jason insisted. They all got up and walked over to the girls table "Hello ladies," Jason said casually as they walked up to the girls.

"Hello _boys_," Kelsie said sarcastically and smiled at Jason.

"So what are you guys up to?" Troy asked, jumping into the conversation.

"Oh you know, girl stuff.. we were actually just talking about pads, tampons, and the whole menstrual cycle," Gabriella said as she was walking back from throwing away her trash.

"Eww, that's faulty.." Troy said with a disgust look coming from all the guys. The girls giggled as Sharpay gave Gabriella a high-five, "Haha, good one Gabby."

"I'm just kidding you guys. We were just talking about what we were gonna do this weekend."

"Us too!" Zeke called out.

"What are you girls planning on doing then?" Ryan asked

"Hmm, well, we were talking about going to the movies tonight at midnight to catch the first showing of that new horror movie that's coming out, then have everyone just sleep over at my house since it'll be late.." Gabriella stated.

"Haha, that's cool. You know, were were talking about doing the same. Well, I mean, except for the whole sleeping over at your house, and it being a bunch of girls, instead it'll be. . . Okayy, I'm rambling again aren't I?" Troy said embarassed of his rambling. He seemed to always ramble when he got nervous around Gabriella. Gabriella just laughed on the inside as that moment reminded her of the first time she and Troy met at the lodge, talking about finding their parents. She smiled as she looked at Troy, then suddenly realizing what she was doing, she laughed "Yeah, It kinda reminds me of New Years..."

Kelsie smiled and nuddged her head for Sharpay to see what she noticed. Sharpay smiled from ear to ear as she saw her two friends not know what was ahead of them.

"Haha, yeah, it's been what a month or so right?" Troy asked.

"Something like that," she answered smiling, "Anyhow, why don't we all just go together tonight then? I mean, we're all gonna be there anyways. It'll be fun!" Gabriella suggested.

"Sounds awesome to me!" Jason said, who was now sitting next to Kelsie after taking her hat off so that her hair would fall onto her shoulders.

"I'm down," Zeke added, who of course took a seat right next to Sharpay, "You're gonna be there right Sharpay!" she nodded, "You know it."

"Great then, it's settled" Troy said just as the bell rang. They all gatherd their things and headed off to free period. The guys went into the gym, while the three girls headed to the theatre.


	2. Talking in Class

Hey guys! well thanks for the reviews! Haha here's chapter two.. i'll try getting up another chapter today if i have time, if not, i'm sure there will be one shortly because we have a long weekend. Hope you guys enjoy it, & any reviews with suggestions or anything would be nice..

* * *

"C'mon guys! I don't know how!" Ryan pleaded. 

"That's why we're teaching you..duh," Troy Said "No worries, it'll be fun!"

Free period went by, and suprisingly, Ryan picked up the game quick. All he had to do was quit tripping over his own feet and he would be a natural.

* * *

In the theatre, the girls were messing around, dancing and singing on stage while they had the theatre to themselves, just having fun since it was a friday. Sharpay and Gabriella stopped and lied down on the stage to catch their beath, Kelsie left the piano and joined the two and sat down. 

"So, you guys excited about tonight now that the boys are gonna be there too?" Sharpay asked. Kelsie blushed at the thought of Jason being there.

"I think it's gonna be really fun. I bet Taylor's gonna freak when she finds out Chad is gonna be there." Gabriella said.

"Oh shut up Gabby, I know that your super happy that Troy is gonna be there tonight! Me and Kels saw the way you were smiling at him.."

"Here we go... _again"_ Kelsie mutterd once more.

"Yeah, well, it's pretty obvious that nothings gonna happen. It's been a month and a half since we met at the lodge, and nothing's happened yet since things were getting in the way all the time. I mean the musical brought us closer and everything.. and i thought we would.. and now it's just.." Gabriella sighed. She didn't know how to explain it.

"Hah, at least you admitted it. You like Troy!" Sharpay said happily clapping her hands together.

Gabriella blushed. "And what about you and Zeke!"

"What about Me and Zeke?"

"You mean Zeke and I" Kelsie corrected her for the second time that day..

"What about you and Jason!"

"Whaaa?" Kelsie blushed. The three laughed and the bell suddenly rang.

* * *

Everyone headed to their sixth period classes, Jason had history with Taylor sitting next to him, Zeke had Troy in his English class, Gabriella had Ryan in her math class, and Kelsie and Sharpay had French together. Chad struggled in Chemistry alone as he knew no one in the class which was a good thing, because he would be able to focus more.. but instead he slept more in that class than he was ever awake. 

**Jason & Taylor in history..**

"Ohh, Taylor! Uhh everyone told me to tell you that we're all gonna go to the movies tonight together." Jason turned to her as everyone was getting into class.

"When did this happen?" She asked confused as she thought it was a girls night..

"Um, During lunch. You weren't there.. Gabby said that you had to go help Mrs. Romero with something.. Anywho, sound good?"

"Yeah, sounds great! Nothing wrong withhanging out with everyone. We haven't in a while, we're usually divided into guys and gals." Taylor laughed.

"Awesome. Well, I also need your help.." He said nervously.

"Sure, anything."

"Well you see, err, umm, well, ilikekelsie." He blurted it out so fast while he blushed.

Taylor giggled. "Jason, its pretty obvious that you do.. so what do you need me for?"

He sighed in relief. "Well, you see, since we're all going to the movies together..and, well..since i like her and everything.."

"Geez Jason, just spit it out" she whisperd back as class began. Jason didn't respond. The teacher had began the lesson.

"Today class, we will be finishing up putting together our partner presentations on World War II, and presenting for those of you who are ready today. Also, for those of you who presented yesterday, I have your grades if you would like to see them. I expect everyone who hasn't finished and presented to be ready by next Wednesday. Okay any questions?" the class sat silently, "Great then, you may meet with your partners and work. If you're already done with everything, just do something productive and follow the classroom rules. Please come up if you would like to see your grades.." The class started talking and moving their desks next to their partners. Taylor and Jason had already presented the day before, and walked up to go see their grades.

"Yes! An A!" Jason said proudly.

"See I told you If you dressed up It would help." Taylor pointed at the teacher's comment on their grading paper; _Great job you two! Good idea of dressing up as a pilot Jason,I noticed that the class payed more attention. "A" for the both of you._

"The only reason they payed attention was because you drew a weird mustache on my face to make me look like a Japanese pilot! Why didn't you dress up!"

"Oh shut up. It's over now, and we got an A. So what were you saying earlier?" She asked as they headed back to their seats.

"Well, I want to sit by her at the movies.. I know that sounds kinda stupid and cheesy but yeahh. So I was gonna put this in her locker.." He handed her a piece of paper. "But i wasn't sure if it was a stupid idea, so I thought I could get your opinion"

Taylor opened up the paper, and saw it was a poem..

_I bet you didn't expect this._

_But being with you is enternal bliss._

_I hope for this bliss once more as we join tonight,_

_Sit by my side later this evening at midnight?_

_-Jason (_

"Oh my gosh, Jason, that's so sweet!"

"Really? I mean, do you think she'll like it? it doesn't sound corny or anything does it? Be honest, I can handle it!" Jason closed his eyes as if he was waiting for someone to slap his face. He waited for a few seconds and slightly opened one of his eyes looking atTaylor.

"Haha, trust me, I would be flatterd if I were Kelsie. I wish a guy would do that for me.." Taylor sighed.

"Haha want be to put in a good word for you to anyone?" He smiled, "Chad!" he coughed.Taylor responded by hitting the back of his head. "Whhaat! Hmm, be right back I'm gonna ask to go to the restroom so I can slip it into her locker." Jason said grabbing the note.

**Ryan & Gabriella in math class..**

"Hey Gabby, uhh do you think the gang would mind if I invited someone else to go tonight?" Ryan asked nervously.

"Umm, no, I don't think it would matter much. Personally, I wouldn't mind. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, a friend I know asked me if I wanted to watch it with them a few days ago, and we had agreed we'd go together.." He lied.

"Well, I don't see any problem, so go ahead" Gabby insisted cheerfully as she wrote down the next problem on the board."I dont want you to be mean and watch it without them if you guys alreadywanted to watch it"

"Awesome, by the way, uhh how do you do the next problem?"

**Zeke & Troy in English..**

"What you get on your timed writing Troy?"

"A four. you?"

"A three plus. Better than last time" Zeke smirked. "Ey man, soo what do you think about tonight? Excited?"

"Yeah, it'll be fun to have the gang there.."

"I meant the girls. Nows your chance to make a move on Gabby! We all know you like her and everything.."

"Yeah well, I think i screwed it up by not doing anything earlier, I dunno man. She doesn't seem interested"

"Wow you two are blind.." he mutterd so Troy wouldn't notice.

**Chemistry with Chad..**

"Mrs. Romero is this right?"

"Well Chad lets see.. The solubility rules say that Nitrates are soluble right?"

"Yeah, meaning that the atoms wont create a precipitate, and since both of the possible compounds won't create a precipitate. Right?"

"Correct, meaning?"

"That theres no reaction for this equation?"

"Yes! It looks like that tutoring payed off during lunch and free period. You should thank whichever student tutored you in here this afternoon."

"No worries, I will Mrs. Romero"

**Kelsie & Sharpay in French class..**

There was 5 minutes till the bell was about to ring.. "Hey Kels can you come with me after class to my locker before we head out to the fountain to meet the girls? I need to get my math book to study over the weekend." Sharpay asked.

"Yeah sure." Kelsie agreed. The bell rang and they headed towards Sharpays locker. "So you think you'll do good on the Frech test next week?" Kelsie asked as they were walking.

"What?" She wasn't paying attention in class. "There's a test next week!" She added as she opened her locker.

"Yeah! You really should start paying more attention.."

"Man. I should take my French book home too then, hmm, maybe my history book too..I wasn't paying attention in that class either.."

* * *

I know, bad place to end, but hey you guys can wait..(; Haha, theres a lot of minor cliff hangers since this chapter was split into different convos.. soo hopefully you'll read the next chapter(: hmm go review now(: Hehe 


	3. Kelsie's note, Ryan & Chad taking off

Okayy, quick recap of Ch.2;; Everyone was in class,Troy is still blind and can't see that Gabriella still likes him, Jason slipped a note for Kelsie to find, Ryan is inviting more to the movies, & well, Chad is finally starting to understand Chemistry, a _little_ at least, and he still doesn't know about the plans for tonight.

* * *

"Shooot! I forgot, I _don't_ need my history book! We're just watching everyone's presentations now that me and Zeke already presented. Ughh, we're already far from my locker.." Sharpay wined. 

"Yeah, we are. Oh! we can go put it in mine really quick! My locker is just around the corner" Kelsie suggested as the passed by the office. "I don't think I need my French book that much anyhow, I know all the vocab already.." They turned and headed towards Kelsie's locker this time.. She opened it, and Sharpay saw a piece of paper flutter down to the ground.

"Here, this fell out," She said handing the note to Kelsie, "Thanks for letting me put my book in here, I would hate to drag three books home today.. So what's the paper say?"

"It's prolly something from Darbus telling me to fix a song by adding something.. She's come up with soo many suggestions, but I don't want to add anymore to the spring musical." Kelsie said slipping the note into her back pocket, "Mmmkay, I think I've got everything..You?"

"Yep, all set.. Oh hey! Toodles!" Sharpay waved to a friend passing by. "Okayy, I think Gabby and Taylor are wondering where we are.."

* * *

"Sup Troy!" Chad said putting his hand on Troy's shoulder. 

"Oh hey! so, how'd the whole chemistry thing go?"

"Dude, I'm finally getting it. Mrs. Romero said she thinks I'll pass if i go to tutoring on Tuesday like I did today, and study over the 3-day weeked." Chad exclaimed.

"You better pass."

"Hey man, I gotta go do something, I'll meet you at your house after I'm done?"

"Yeah, If I'm not home, just call me." Troy said with a confused look on his face. _What did Chad have to do? Prolly something for his parents..Oh well._

"Alright, see you later man." Chad headed off to his car.He along with Troy, Gabriella, Taylor and Kelsiegottheir licenses just before junior year started. And Zeke, Jason, Ryan, and Sharpay got theirs over winter break.

The Guys all met up at Troys house after getting their things for the weekend. Their parents trusted them to sleep over the whole weeked. Chad still wasn't there yet, neither was Ryan, so the guys decided to go shoot some hoops in Troy's backyard. Meanwhile, all the girls headed to Gabriella's house. They sat in Gabriella's room talking about different things. Kelsie was helping Sharpay with French, Gabby and Taylor were talking about guys and how they were stupid at times, then started to finish up their homework so they would have the rest of the weekend to have fun. The guys were curious about where Ryan was, he didn't say anything to them about being late.

**Chad's business after school..**

"Wondering the streets, in a world underneath it all  
Nothing seems to be, nothing tastes as sweet  
As what I can't have  
Like you and the way that you're twisting your hair  
round your finger  
Tonight I'm not afraid to tell you  
What I feel about you.

I'm gonna muster every ounce of confidence I have  
and cannon ball into the water  
I'm gonna muster every ounce of confidence I have  
For you I will  
For you I will" Chad sang along to the Teddy Geiger song at the top of his lungs while he was driving he turned it down a bit, just as he was about to park his car. He jumped out and locked his car, then pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number as he entered the doors of a building.

"Hey Gabby! it's Chad."

"Hey Chad, whats up?"

"Ohh nothing, i was just bored. Who you with?

"Well the girls just left my house to go pick up their things since they're sleeping over tonight. Where are you? I'm suprised I don't hear the guys screaming about a basketball game.." She asked

"Oh I'm out running an errand. Anyways, I was calling becauseI need your address.." he said as he wandered around.

"Why for?"

"Because, I do, please Gabby! I don't have much time.."

"Ohh alright. 4547 Hope Drive.."

"Hope Drive? Hahah that's a tight name, I never knew that was the name of your street, Anyways thanks Gabby! I seriously owe you one.."

"Yeah, so what do you need it for?"

"You'll eventually find out. Well, you'll prolly see.."

"Okayy, whatever Chad."

"Haha I promise, I know you'll see.. Uhh gotta go now, Thanks again Gabby! Bye."

"Okayy? Bye." She hung up confused.

**Ryan's business after school..**

Ryan came home to find Sharpay there. "Hey why aren't you at Troy's or something?" She asked.

"Oh I was out with some of the drama club people.. I just came home to pick up my stuff."

"Yeah me too. I just got home from Gabby's." She said as she passed by his room.

"Okayy, well I'm set. Don't forget to lock the door, mom and dad called and told me that they went out of town to go see Aunt Julie and the new baby, she just gave birth this morning." She smiled.

"What! They went to go see my new precious cousin without me!"

"Relax Ryan, they said that they're gonna come visit us sometime next week, or the week after, so we don't have to miss school."

"Oh that's cool then. Hey, I'ma head over to Starbucks before heading over to Troy's.. Do you want anything? I'll drop it by Gabby's house if you want."

"Ohhh sure. Uhmm. Caramel apple cider blended with ice with extra caramel and whip cream please. Thanks, I'll pay you back later. Well I'm off, see you in a bit." Ryan nodded and got his things and left for Starbucks.

He ordered the drinks and sat down to wait. "Hey! you made it!"

"So I was wondering if you wanted to go see that movie we were talking about going to see over the week, my friends and I were planning on catching the first showing at midnight tonight, what do you say?"

"Sure, Sounds good."

"Do you need a ride? Or.."

"No, it's okayy, I'll drive."

"Ryan! Drinks are ready!" a worker called out.

"Okay, I'll see you tonight then, I'llcall you when we're on our way so you won't wait there by yourself. Bye"

He grabbed the drinks and drove off to Gabriella's house. He walked up to the door and rang the doorbell, sipping on his own caramel apple cider waiting for the girls to answer the door.

"Hey Ryan, " Gabriella and Sharpayopened the door, "Come in..Oh hey guys!" She saw Taylor and Kelsie coming in with their stuff.

"Here's your drink Sharpay.."

"You went to Starbucks and didn't buy anything for the rest of us!" Gabriella said sarcastically

"Oh, uhh, I'll go back if you like.."

"I'm just kidding Ryan.."

"Hmm, I want some, but that's okayy Ryan, I can get some later for myself" Taylor added.

"Well, I think i should be going now ladies. I never told the guys that I was gonna be late, so they're prolly wondering where I am. Byee"

"Bye Ryan!" they all said.

A few hourswent by and the doorbell rang again. "I got it guys, be right back." Gabriella ran to the door, looked through the peek-hole and saw a man. "Afternoon.." she greeted him warmly..

* * *

Anyways. Thanks for the reviews, I'm glad to know that you guys are like everything so far. My friend was reading this and asked why i used simple dicition; well i know that people ignore the ratings, soo i thought i'd just make it easy for everyone to read.. I also write all of this in class when i'm bored.. so a lot of what happens in my class kinda makes its way into here..like that chemistry equation. LOL. Ohh well, i think it makes it more realistic in a way.. 

By the way, this chapter was originally way LONGER, but i wanted to separate it into different sections.. just to help it make more sense because i have the tendancy to jump from a lof of POVs and i hate labeling them. unless i have to. ready? set.. REVIEW! Haha :


	4. It's a BOMB!

"Good afternoon Miss, Are you Taylor McKessie by any chance?" He asked and smiled at Gabriella. He was about 5'7" with dark brown hair and smokey grey eyes, and looked very young. He was also dressed in a tuxedo, and Gabriella was confused but didn't show it.

"Uhm, no, just one minute, I'll get her.."she excused herself, running back to the living room and beckoned Taylor.."Pssst, Tay!" motioning her hands to come follow her. Kelsie and Sharpay followed, exchanging the looks of confusion as they were walking to the door. "Ohh he's hot!" Sharpay said to Gabriella and Kelsie once she saw him, and they nodded in agreement smiling.

"Taylor McKessie?" the young man asked smiling when they got to the door. "Ohh cute smile too!" Sharpay mumbled and they giggled behind Taylor.

"Yes?"

"Sign here please." He said handing over a clipboard. "Thank you, hold on.." He ran to his car, pulling out a large box. and setting it on the porch, then running back to the car to pull out another box, which was long.. "Ahem," he cleared his voice.. and began to recite "_Dear Taylor, I know you seem to hate things my way, But you still seem to put up with me almost everyday. I won't make this poem very long, only because my poetry isn't so strong. I know it sounds really corny in a rhyme, but will you please be mine?_" Kelsie and Sharpay giggled from watching the young man's hand movements that he motioned during the poem.. "I think he meant girlfriend.." He commented with a heart-melting smile. "Anyhow, continuing with this" he moved to the long box and opened it and faced the lid towards the girls so that they couldn't see what was inside as he carried it and faced the door. Inside were long-stem roses..He pulled one out, each rose had a different tag, and the man began to recite more as he read the tags..

"This yellow-red tipped rose represents 'Falling in love', as I am with you.." he handed her the rose, and pulled out another as you could hear the three other girls saying "Awww.."  
"This yellow rose represents 'Friendship', which I will always cherish our sno matter what." Taylor smiled as she received the rose..  
"This pink rose represents 'Admiration & Appreciation', because I admire you, and appreciate what you do." Taylor wondered what she did that would make someone appreciate her..  
"This orange rose represents 'Disire', because I have a disire to be with you." Taylor was about to cry of happiness because this was a sweet thought, but held it back.  
"This lavender rose represents 'Love at first sight', becuase I've finally realized I've always been so blind.." Gabriella instantly thought about Troy..  
"This redrosebud is symbolic of 'Purity and Loveliness', because, well, It's you."  
"And last but not least, This red rose represents 'I Love you', which is what I would like to say to you when the time is right." The man handed Gabriella the box in case Taylor wanted to put them back inside and he read the paper he was reading earlier..  
"All these roses that you have recieved have no thorns as you can see. I had them taken off just to make sure you're safe, and let you know that I would never hurt you." Once again, all the girls went "Awwwww"

"I wasn't told to open this for you. It says for you to open it whenever you wish to" He said referring to the other box. The girls forgot that there were two boxes. "It says just open it within the next few hours otherwise, well.. yeahh you'll see. Okay, my work here is done. Hope you ladies have a lovely evening."

"You know, you look really familiar.." Gabriella told him before he walked away. He stopped and smiled, and turned away again..

Just as he was about to get into the car, "Excuse me! Do you know who this is from?" Taylor called out..

"I'm sorry I'm supposed to keep it confidential. This is just my job"

"Oh, Okay, thank you!" The girls brought the other box inside up to Gabriella's room and put the roses in a vase on Gariella's desk since they were sleeping over. Sharpay and Kelsie were sitting at the desk reading all the little tags, while Gabriella and Taylor were on the bed glaring at the box..

"Aren't you gonna open it yet Tay?"

"I don't know Gabby.. I wonder who did this.." Sharpay and Kelsie joined them on Gabriella's huge bed.

"I wonder whats _inside.._" Sharpay trailed off..

"What if it's something alive and we're suffocating it!" Kelsie said the first random thought that came to mind. they all laughed.

"I don't think this person is stupid enough to not put air holes if theres something alive in there.." Gabriella stated

"Or are they?" Sharpay said wondering. Taylor was silent. She had no clue who it was from.

"Okayy, I think I'm ready to open it," she said sitting up and getting off the bed. she stood next to the box, it almost reached her knee and was pretty wide. They found out it wasn't very heavy as they carried it upstairs earlier.

"What if it's a BOMB?" Kelsie shouted..

"KELS!" They shouted back at her..

"Sorry, you guys know me, my imagination can run wild sometimes.. " They all joined Taylor and gathered around the box.. Then Sharpay's cell started to ring.

* * *

Back to the guys..(this part is happening when the man arrives at Gabriella's house..) 

Troy, Zeke, and Jason were sitting downstairs after playing basket ball for an hour watching TV and eating.

"Wonder where Ryan is.." Jason said blankly.

"Yeah, I thought he would've been here by now." Troy said..Then the doorbell rang.

"Hey guys! Sorry I'm late, I went home to get my stuff, then I had to meet someone, then I got Starbucks for Sharpay and I and dropped it off at Gabby's.." Ryan said almost running out of breath.

"It's okayy man," Troy said, "hmm, now I wonder where Chad is now.." Chad was just pulling in on the driveway and let himself into the house.

"Hey guys sorry I'm late. I had to do something downtown. So what are you guys up to" Chad asked.

"Just TV." Zeke said as he was playing with his cell.

"You guys wanna go to the mall or something?" Jason asked. "I'm getting bored. And the stores won't be open when we go later tonight.."

"Alright," the guys said.

"You're driving Jason since you suggested it!" Chad and Troy said together.

"My car only holds four people though!"

"I'll drive.." Zeke said. "I hate you car Jason. There's little space."

"Haha okay, hey Troy can I shower first? I'm all sweaty from b-ball earlier.." Jason asked

"Yeah go ahead. I need to too." Troy responded "I'll go get you a towel." He ran up the stairs.." Hey Zeke! what about you?" he yelled from upstairs..

"Yeah!" Troy gave the guys towels. Troy took a shower in his bathroom, Zeke in the guest room upstairs, and Jason in the bathroom downstairs. Chad and Ryan just sat on the couch and watched TV while they finished. Then they headed off to the mall, Troy, Chad, Jason and Ryan drove off in Jason's car, and Zeke drove off in his. And took out his cell and dialed a number then put it on speaker..

* * *

Sharpay saw that Zeke was calling, so she excused herself knowing that it would be a while until Taylor opened the box and walked out onto Gabriella's balcony. 

"Hey Zeke what's up?"

"Hey Sharpay, I was just wondering, would you like to sit by me tonight?"

"Yes! I'd love to! It's soo sweet of you to ask.." she said smiling and looked back into Gabriella's room and saw Taylor bending down to open the box.

"Great!"

"Uhh I gotta go, me and the girls are doing something, see you tonight, Toodles!"

She ran back into the room.."Zeke asked me to sit with him tonight" She said glowing.

"Aww" the girls said. Then they focused their attention back on Taylor & the box. She undid the ribbon, and the box slowly started to open and all the girls stood back. Suddenly, the box burst open and the girls started screaming. Then they looked at what had popped out and started laughing embarrassed of how they responded. Seven red and silver balloons shot out, one with a heart, and the rest spelling out "T-A-Y-L-O-R"

"Deng, This guy is good.." Gabriella said laughing. The balloons were tied to a bear that Taylor pulled out from the bottom of the box. It had magnetic hands that were clasping a note that said "Thanks for today." And she smiled.

"So any idea who it's from?" Kelsie asked.

"Noo,"

"Hmm, I'm a bit hungry, how bout you guys?" Gabriella asked

"Yeahh, let's go eat.." Sharpay said, and they all headed downstairs.

"I'ma put this stuff away really quick." Taylor said and the girls left the room. She was still looking at the little note. She knew that handwriting she knew who it was.. she was surprised.

* * *

Well there's Chapter 4, I have an idea for the next few chapters; I've already got Ch.5 half way done.. Haha, I think it'll be good. But yeah i update depending on reviews.. So what do you guys think? Good? Bad? Haha anything you guys hate? be honest, i don't mnd. Oh annd yes, i did come up with that rose thing all by myself haha, except for what the colors mean, that stuff is actually true. 

In the next few chapters, they FINALLY go to the movies.. lol. you meet ryan's guest, find out who sent the roses.. & somethingREALLY unexpected is gonna happen if you guys were paying attention to this chapter buwahaha


	5. Mix Up, Sleep, & Serenading gifts

Ughh, Sorry about that guys! i kinda screwed up chapter 4 without realizing it.. i was typing it and then it got erased, so i just redid it as best i could, annd i didn't realize i left out Kelsie reading the note from her locker. Soo, i kinda had to change it up a bit, So a lot of the things that i was planning on making happen won't happen..i think... anywhoo, thanks to some of your guys' reviews who were talking about kelsie's note, i realized that i left it out, and i prolly would've forgot about it.

* * *

The girls were downstairs again, and watching TV and eating pizza. Then Gabriella jumped off the couch, ran to her room, and back downstairs. The girls gave her a weird look. 

"What the heck Gabby? That was all random.."

"Oh, Sorry, I just remembered something,here Kels!" she said giving her a piece of paper.. "I found it after you guys went home to get your things, and it was on the floor where you set your backpack down, so i assumed it was yours but I wasn't sure since theres no name and i didn't want to be rude and read it since it may be personal."

"Oh Thanks Gabby! No worries it's not personal, just one of Darbus' "suggestions" or so she calls it. They're kinda getting annoying.." She said trailing off as she opened the letter. "See I told you..this one just says that i should add another duet betweens act 1 scene 2 and 3." Kelsie put the paper back into her pocket..

"Hmm, I think it would actually be cute if you did add a duet there." Sharpay said.. "I remember reading the script, it was kinda plain there.."

Kelsie just shrugged and they just watched TV.

* * *

The guys were roaming the mall, and decided to go to the arcade. 

"Hey Ryan wanna play Time Crisis 3?" Troy asked.

"Sure." They inserted their money and played. They hadn't noticed that Zeke, Jason, and Chad had disappeared after a few minutes. The three headed back into the mall, they all decided that they would buy something for the girls, including Gabriella. They came up with the idea since they all agreed that Troy wouldn't make a move anytime soon, so they thought they'd help him. The three went into Claire's and were clueless of what to buy.

"What do we get them?" Chad asked looking at all the jewelry on the wall..

"I don't know!" Jason said..

"Excuse me, do you think you could help us out?" Zeke asked an associate. "We need help looking for presents for our uh..friends..that are girls?"

"Um what he means, is that we're planning on asking them out, and we wanted to get them gifts.." Jason cleared things.

"Oh, Okay, sure. Hmm.. can you tell me anything about them? because that would help" The worker said.

"Uhh, they're all best friends!" Chad said.

"okay.. hm. How about these?" She pulled out some lockets from the back room that were still in a box.." They're not gonna go on the shelves for a few more months, but this sounds like a special occasion" She smiled. The three guys looked at each other an smiled.

"We'll take em!" they all said together. The woman started to pull out three when Chad interupted her.

"Well we actually need four. One for our other friend to give to a girl." Chad said remembering about Troy.

"Great, we have four different ones, the all have different color gems. Red, Light Blue, Lavender, and Pink"

"Wow, how scary, those are their favorite colors" Zeke said astonished.

"They're $15.00 already including tax just to let you guys know since we're not supposed to be selling these yet. But I'm the manager here, so yeah. I just charged you guys a little over, is that alright?"

"Yeah that's fine." They guys said. They paid for the lockets and left.

"So when are we gonna give it to them?" Jason asked.

"How about Tuesday, when we get back to school?" Zeke suggested.

"Sounds good to me.." Chad said. "That'll give us time to put something inside and wrap them." Then they headed back to the arcade.

"Hey where'd you guys go?" Troy and Ryan were were sitting outside of the arcade, and Ryan noticed the bags fom Claire's.

"Haha, you guys went to go shop at Claire's!" Ryan said laughing and Troy joined in.

"Haha why'd you guys go there?" Troy said

"Well, we kinda bought stuff for the girls" Jason confessed

"Yeah we even bought one for you to give to Gabby.." Chad added.

"What!"

"Dude, you know you like her."

"So what, she doesn't seem interested" Troy said..

"Maybe she wold be, if she saw that you were too.." Chad said

"Anyways let's get back to my house, it's kinda getting boring here, and the mall closes early today." the guys left, this timeRyan rode with Zeke, and Jason, Chad, and Troy rode together.

"Man, I gotta go get gas, I'm almost at empty.. Can you guys call Zeke&Ryan and let them know I'ma stop at the gas station?" Jason said. Chad got his cell phone out and told the guys.

* * *

Jason went inside to pay for the gas, he reached into his pocket and pulled out what he thought was money.. And looked at it in shock.. It was the letter he was supposed to drop in her locker.. He quickly paid for the gas and left to the pump. _Man! I can't believe i did that! Argh. I wasn't paying attention to what piece of paper i slipped in! Ugh, I just wrote her name on it without even checking! _Jason had written Kelsie's not on half a sheet of paper, and on the other half was his homework from his math class.. So the note in her locker only said _To Kelsie _on the out side, _Pg. 299 # 2-64 even_.

* * *

Chadwas trying to get away from the conversation he and Troy were having. Zeke and Ryan got Troy's spare hidden key and watched TV after Troy told them they could. It was a quiet ride on the way home from the gas station until Troy broke the silence.

"So, what did you guys buy for me to give to Gabby?"

"A locket, The one for Gabby has a red gem on the heart. It matches the rest of the girls' and suprisingly they came in their favorite colors, we were all planning to suprise the girls with them at school on Tuesday.." Chad replied nervously..

"Oh. That's cool. So I guess since you guys already bought it, I should give it to her then, I mean, since the all the other girls are gonna have one, she should too.."

"Good you owe me 15 bucks man."

"Whaat!" Troy said shocked

"Hey man, these babies don't come out for a while, the store manager hooked us up so she charged us a little extra."

"Fine, but at least it's for Gabby.." He pouted.

"So does this mean you're finally gonna make a move?" Jason asked as he was pulling into Troy's driveway.

"You know, I've actually been thinking about it for a while. I kinda have it planned out almost.."

* * *

Meanwhile, the four girls had gone back to Gabriella's room, Kelsie was helping Sharpay with more homework and studying, while Taylor was sitting on Gabriella's bed watchinga new movie on tv. Gabriella was laying next to Taylor. She had started watching the movie and gradually fell asleep. The girls saw that she had fallen asleep, and didn't bother to wake her up because they knew she was tired from staying up late the night before, studying for a test. They figured they should let her sleep since they weren't gonna leave until 11:30ish. Eventually they all fell asleep from boredom. Taylor woke up, and set Gabriella's alarm to 9:00 just in case they didn't wake up before that. It was now 6:00 pm.

* * *

The guys walked into Troys house to find Ryan and Zeke on the couches. They were watching basketball, and Zeke was telling him about some of the players. 

"So what are you planning on doing then?" Chad was asking as they walked into the house. Zeke turned around

"Plan for what?" Zeke asked

"Troy's finally gonna make the move!" Jason said as he sat down next to Ryan.

"Finally we don't have to talk about it in secrecy.." Ryan sighed with relief

"What? You mean that you guys have been talking about this behind my back?"

"Yeah," Chad admitted. "But anyhow, what are you gonna do man?"

"Well, I was just gonna ask her if she wanted to go out sometime over the weekend.." Troy said.

"How?" Zeke asked.

"I don't know yet. I kinda wanted it to be nice, you know how girls are. I'll come up with something before the weekend is over."

* * *

Time passed by. And Gabby's alarm went off. The girls woke up to Gabriella's mom walking into the room to turn off the blasting stereo off. She shook them andwoke them up. The girls got up and fell back asleep, so Mrs. Montez decided to let them sleep and wake them up in an hour. The hour passed and the girls still didn't want to wake up, so Mrs. Montez just decided to put the alarm on for them in 30 minutes, and she headed off for bed, leaving a note for Gabriella and the girls to not forget to lock the door on their way out & to call if they needed anything. The guys had fallen asleep as well. But woke up around 9pm. They came up with a plan, and headed out. 

"Shhhhhh. You're so loud!"

"Exactly why are we doing this?" Ryan asked.

"I don't know." Jason said.

"For fun you guys! Geez, would you rather sit and be bored?" Chad asked. Ryan and Jason shook their heads. Troy was already up on Gabriella's balcony, whispering to the guys the be quiet. Zeke was making his way up. Then the rest of the guys did as well. The saw the girls sleeping as the lights were slightly dim. Fortunately, the balcony door was still unlocked from when Sharpay had gone out earlier.

Troy told them to stay outside, knowing that the other guys wouldn't be able to be quiet. He crept over to Gabriella's bed and looked at her as she slept. He leaned in closer.. and started to sing softly "The Start Of Something New," signaling the guys to come in quietly with his hands behind his back. Jason went directly to Kelsie's hat on Gabriella's deskplacing thecorrect note on top this time, knowing that she would see it on her hat.

He was still serenading her as she slept. He started to see Gabriella smile. Taylor started to move, and her eyes slowly opened. Chad was face to face with her. Chad put hisfinger over his lips, and Taylor understood, andmouthed "ThankYou!" as she pointed to the roses and balloons, Chad whispered, "I'll talk to you about it later..". By then everyonewas awake except for Gabriella. Troy finished the song, and kissed her forehead. And the guys told the girls that they would see them later because they didn't want to wake her.. so they left, this time through the front door.

Taylor, Kelsie, and Sharpay, gathered on the otherside of Gabriella's room and started talking about how sweet that was of Troy.. Then Kelsie pointed at Gabriella who was waking up, still with a smile.. She finally got up and saw the girls awake.

"How long?" Gabriella asked rubbing her eyes.

"Uhh, you fell asleep around 5ish I think, and then we were all asleep, then I remember you mom waking us up, and then we went BACK to sleep, and then yeahh its almost 10:30 now." Taylor explained

"Oh. How long have you guys been up?"

"Not that long" Sharpay said.

"Hey, were you guys playing the song: "The Start Of Something New"?" Gabriella asked, walking over to the girls..

"Nope." They all said smiling..

"Weird, I swear, I heard.." She trailed off.. _Troy.._ she thought.

* * *

Okayy, well, there's Chapter 5 kidds(: Haha. I know its long, but yeah, a lot of you guys wanted me to update. Sorry it took soo long. I had a lot to do & i didn't really have time in class to write anything, hopefully I'll have time to write more in class since a lot of the projects are over with for a while.. Soo Review & tell me what you think, annd If i get a lot quick, then i'll update as fast as i can. 


	6. The movies

Okayy guys.. I had to re-read my story because i make my chapters so long that i forget what i put in em. LOL. Soooo.. for this chapter, you guys had to pay attention to the first. Okayy? Alright.. thanks for the reviews guys! keep em coming. I'm glad to hear you guys are liking everything so far.

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* * *

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**Gabriella's Point of View… **

_I swear I heard Troy's voice.. Maybe it was just part of my dream. I don't know. He doesn't have any feelings for you! Remember? Arggh, I like him so much, but I just don't want to show it because it'll just ruin the relationship we already have.. So we're just gonna be friends I guess. Yeah, friends, we never really did anything after the triple win… maybe it's supposed to be like this.. _Gabriella trailed off in her own thoughts. The girls were looking at her smiling knowing what had just happen.

"What are you guys smiling about?" Gabriella asked, curious as to why they were smiling so much.

"Uhhhmm.." Sharpay was trying to come up with a quick excuse..

"Okay, well, we might as well tell you." Taylor interupted Sharpay

"Uhh what's going on you guys?" She said with a scared look.

"Troy was serenading you while you were asleep. The other girls and I woke up and found the rest of the guys in the room as well.. no worries though, they didn't really do much.. I guess they were here because of Troy. But yeah, they came in from your balcony.. Troy sang "The Start Of Something New" and I guess we all woke up except for you." Taylor explained.

"Oh.." was all Gabriella could say. _So I wasn't dreaming.. I did hear his voice. Oh my gosh. How sweet. But wait..why? I thought.. ughh. I don't know what to do anymore.._ Gabriella thought, sighing happily though.

"See, he _does_ like you.." Sharpay said. Gabriella shrugged and they all started getting ready.

* * *

"Sweet man! We pulled it off!" Chad said. 

"Yeah" Troy said grinning.. _But I hope I'll be able to pull off the rest on my own like i planned._ He thought.

The guys made their way back to Troy's house to get ready. The Girls were taking their showers, picking out what to wear, and all that. Chad called the girls, telling them that they would pick them up so that they wouldn't take soo many cars. Gabriella found the note her mom left her on her mirror over her dresser saying:

_Gabby, _

_My flight changed to tomorrow morning at 5 instead of in the afternoon. I know, I know, but at least the company isn't transferring me this time like they promised. Well, I'll be back Tuesday morning, you girls have fun tonight. I'll wake you before I leave in the morning if you girls aren't awake still. Call me if you guys need anything. Love, Mom._

Mrs. Montez was heading to another business meeting out of town since she asked the company not to move her, she had to attend meetings all around. Troy's parents weren't home either. They had left after school to celebrate their anniversary. After she showered, Kelsie had found the note Jason had placed on her hat as she was getting ready and blushed, reading it over. Soon enough, the guys were ringing the doorbell. Each of them decided to drive their own cars, and came up with the idea of ringing the doorbell one by one.

Doorbell rings. "Hello, I'm here to escort Taylor," Chad smiled, offering his arm to her as they walked out the door.. "We'll see you guys later." He said as they walked away. The girls looked confused as to what was happening so they just sat down in the living room an talked.

Doorbell rings. Gabriella got up and answered the door. Jason turned around smiling.. "Ahem, Kelsie" he whispered, and Gabriella just laughed and went to go get her.. Kelsie got to the door.. "So, would you like to ride with me to the movies?" He asked sweetly, noticing she wasn't wearing a hat. She responded by nodding, trying hard to not to blush.

Sharpay and Gabriella were just sitting in the living room talking about how sweet it was for Jason to write a poem, and how cute they looked together as a couple, and Suddenly the doorbell rang again. The girls walked to the door.

"Hello Gaby, Hey Sharpay. Shall we go?" He asked.

"Yeah!" Sharpay and Gabriella said together..

"Oh, I was, uhh, asking Sharpay, sorry Gabby.."

"Oh it's fine..See you guys soon.." Gabriella said sighing. She went back to the living room and just waited.. 10 minutes passed. She was getting impatient and got up to go get her car keys. Just as she grabbed them, the doorbell rang, and she went to go answer it.

"Hey!" Troy greeted. "Sorry I'm late, I..."

"It's fine" She smiled, and grabbed her bag. "The movie doesn't start for a while, and we already have tickets reserved.."

"Oh. Well, uumm, here," He pulled out a single rose handing it to her as she closed the door behind her.

"Oh, wow. Thanks Troy" She blushed smiling and she leaned to kiss him on the cheek. He smiled falling into a trance for a few seconds.

"So, we should get going.." She said.

"Right." he said, realizing that they were still on her porch and he offered his arm to her as they walked to his car, opening the door for her. The ride to the movies was silent. Troy was still in shock that Gabriella had kissed him on the cheek. Gabriella on the other hand was contemplating on what she had done..

_What did I just do! Oh my gosh, I was just supposed to think about it, not take it into action. How stupid of me. But then again, he did kinda look happy afterwards though, but it could be about something else. But why isn't he talking? Did he not like what happened? _She kept asking herself questions the whole ride there.

They walked into the movies together, and saw Ryan waiting by the entrance.

"Hey Ryan!" Gabriella said to break the silence.

"Hey guys, uh the gang is over there getting drinks and stuff. I'm still waiting for my friend." He said looking around.

"You invited someone?" Troy asked curiously.

"Yeah, Gabby thought it would be fine, and we both agreed that we didn't think you and everyone else wouldn't mind either.. do you?"

"Oh, it's fine. I just didn't know, I thought it was just the gang. So did you want anything to snack on during the movie Gabby?"

"Yeah, let's go buy something.. Did you want anything Ryan?"

"It's okayy, Sharpay's already got it, and she's already in the theatre with Zeke saving us seats. You guys go ahead.." Troy and Gabriella headed over to go buy food, and saw Chad, Taylor, Kelsie, and Jason heading towards theatre 3 with their food and everything.

"Popcorn?" Troy asked

"Sure"

"Hi, can we get a large popcorn, and two medium drinks, oh and we'll take that last pack of Runts. Thanks." He said pointing to the candy. Gabriella wasn't paying attention as he ordered and they started walking to theatre 3.

"Here you go," he said, handing her the packet of Runts.

"Hey, you remembered." She stopped walking to face him.

"Of course. How could I forget? You told me that you loved them the first night we met at the lodge. Your exact words were 'They make me feel like a little kid again.'"

"Yeah," she thought, still smiling. Once they got to the door, Troy ran up to it to open it for her.

As he did he asked, "So would you like to sit next to me?"

"Hmm, no, it's okay, I think I'll sit in between Chad and Taylor.." She said sarcastically, "I'm kidding. I'd love to" She admitted as she walked passed him. They found the rest of the gang in the dim lighting and took the two seats that were close to the isle. The couples were talking as the previews were showing.

"You know, I don't mind if you get scared and grab my arm or anything like that."

"Haha, thanks. I'll be sure to remember that you're right here next to me."

The movie started, the girls were screaming and hiding their faces on the guy's shoulders. Ocassionally the guys did the same which made Gabriella laugh.

"Wow, the Wildcats superstar is afraid?" She leaned in and whispered in his ear.

"No, well, just a little, but I've got you here.." He whispered back, kissing her on the cheek while she was still close. Gabriella was glad that the lights were off because she knew she was red. Later, the movie finished, and they all came out of the theatre.

"Man that movie was freakin' awesome!" Chad yelled. They all nodded their heads in a agreement. Grabriella noticed that Chad and Taylor were holding hands, and same with Sharpay and Zeke. Then She saw Ryan.. holding hands with a girl.

* * *

Haha, okay sorry i have to cut it here, but the good news is that i think i'll be able to get another chapter up today maybe more, it's still early. Haha. soo yeah. review, and i'll get back to typing.. 


	7. Ride home

Told you I'd try and squeez in another update. Haha. Well, here's Chapter 7 guys. I'm already planning and writing 8. So you guys might get that today as well. who knows maybe chapter 9 if i have time. But it all depends on you guys.. soo go review after! haha okayy byee..

**TO penguinsrock12: Yeah, that was Zeke. Sorry i didn't say. Haha. Thanks for the reminder though..**

* * *

"Hey guys." Ryan waved his hands. "Uh, this is Camille. Camille, this is Chad, Taylor, Jason, Kelsie, Zeke, my sister Sharpay, Troy, and Gabriella." He said pointing to them. Camille waved at them. 

"Hey we didn't see you guys in there." Jason said. "We saved two seats.."

"Oh, we got in like 5 minutes after the movie started and just took seats that were available." Ryan said.

"Yeah, Sorry, that's my fault. I kinda got here late because my brother had to borrow my car last minute, so he drove me here." Camille said shyly.

"It's okay, at least you guys didn't miss the movie" Sharpay said.

"Well, I think we should get going now, it's kinda getting late? Or should I say early? I don't know, let's just say it's almost 3am" he laughed. And they all got into their cars and headed towards Gabriella's house.

They all parked outside of Gabriella's house and no one got out of their cars. Ryan went to go drop Camille off. Troy and Gabriella saw everyone still inside the cars as they finally pulled up.

**In Chad's Car… **

"Thanks for the flowers and everything Chad."

"No problem. So did you like it?"

"Yes! I loved it. Oh my gosh, it was so sweet… I didn't think you would come up with something like that."

"Haha, yeah, surprisingly I had no help. So you never answered my question.."

"What question?"

"Will you be my girlfriend?"

"Yes." Chad kissed her softly, and they pulled apart smiling.

"Want me to walk you to the door?"

Taylor just nodded, and they got out

**In Jason's Car… **

Jason and Kelsie were sitting silently, until Jason finally broke the silence.

"So, you weren't wearing you hat tonight.." He said randomly, not knowing what to talk about.

"Yeah, I thought you'd like it better that way…"

"Of course." He smiled and kissed her cheek.

"So would you like me to walk you to the door?"

"Sure, I'd love that." They both got out, and started walking to the door.

**In Zeke's Car… **

"Man, I didn't know Ryan was dating someone.." Sharpay said.

"Yeah, he never mentioned anything about Camille."

"How weird."

"All I know is that she moved here a little while after Gabby did. She's in one of my classes.."

"Oh." Sharpay was still puzzled why her brother wouldn't tell her about the girl he liked. Then suddenly her train of thought was broken by Zeke kissing her.

"Sorry, I just.. really wanted to do that." Zeke admitted.

"Me too.."

"C'mon, I'll walk you to the door."

**In Troy's Car… **

"Why is everyone still in the cars?" Gabriella asked looking out the window.

"I don't know, I guess they're all talking or something."

"Yeah I guess. Anyways, thank you for tonight; letting me hide behind you and everything" she laughed

"No problem. Haha, I should be thanking you as well."

"Well, you're welcome too."

"Hey do you wanna go go-kart racing with me tomorrow? I know it sounds kinda cheesy and all.."

"Haha that would be fun." Gabriella cut him off.

"Great. Hey look everyone is getting out now. I guess I should walk you to the door now.."

"Alright."

They all reached the door and Gabriella pulled out her key and started to unlock the door.

"I'd invite you guys in, but my mom is asleep and she has to wake up early to catch a flight.."

"It's alright, we should get going anyways." Troy said, and the guys all nodded in agreement.

"Goodnight guys." Gabriella waved to the guys, and hugged Troy "Thanks again, I'll see you tomorrow." She whispered. Chad and Taylor kissed goodnight, as well as Zeke and Sharpay. Kelsie and Jason just hugged goodnight and he kissed her on the cheek. The guys all headed back to their cars while the girls went inside. Troy got into his car, and realized Gabriella had left the rose he gave her earlier on the passenger seat. He grabbed it and ran back to Gabriella's door, and rang the doorbell.

" Tay can you get that really quick! I'm still changing.." Gabriella yelled from the bathroom.

"Alright" Taylor ran down the stairs and peeked through the hole to see Troy standing there with the rose hidden behind his back.

"Hey Tay! Uh can I talk to Gabby really quick?"

"Yeah, she's still changing, come in.. I'll go get her." She ran back upstairs while Troy took a seat in the living room.

"Psssst, Gabby!" Taylor knocked on the bathroom door. Gabriella came out in her pajamas.

"What?"

"It's for you.."

"Oh, okay." Gabriella ran down stairs to see Troy sitting on the couch in the living room. "Haha, didn't I say tomorrow? Not in 5 minutes.."

"Haha yeah, but you forgot this in my car" He said handing her the rose.

"Oh. Sorry. Thank you for bringing it back to me" She hugged him.

"No problem. Well I think I should get going, the guys are probably at my house waiting for me to let them in unless they already got the spare key out.."

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, I'll call you. Goodnight." Gabriella watched him drive off from her door, then closed it and locked it, running back upstairs.

"What did Troy want?" Taylor asked.

"Nothing, he just brought me the rose I forgot in his car is all."

"Aw, he gave you a rose!" Sharpay said coming out of the bathroom.

"Yeah."

"How sweet" Kelsie said.

"Yeah, I'm tired.." Gabriella said, trying to avoid the conversation because she wanted to go to bed already. She set the rose on her nightstand and got into bed. Taylor joined her, and Sharpay and Kelsie slept on an air mattress that they set up on the floor. "Goodnight" they all said.

Troy got to his house and saw that the guys did use the spare key to get in.

"What took you so long man?" Chad said.

"Gabby forgot something in my car. So I went back to give it to her."

"Oh, well you parents called, and said for you to call them back."

"Alright thanks man." Troy said as he grabbed a clean white shirt, his pajamas, and his phone to call his parents.He walked into his parents room, changed, and dialed his mom's cell phone wondering why they called. He assumed it was just to check on them..

* * *

There's Chapter 7 guys! haha you know what to do now.. REVIEW! haha. it gives me the motive to write more.. 


	8. Phone Calls

Haha, assuming isn't always a bad thing you guys, maybe. Haha. ohh yeahh, and i forgot to answer that NO THE RUNTS PART wasnt part of the movie. I just put it in there for fun because i had runts that day. HAHA. See i told you some of what happens in my personal life flows into here. haha.

* * *

"Hey mom! What's up? Chad said you called.." 

"Why weren't you home! How come Chad answered the phone!" She sounded worried

"Oh, uhh I gave Gabriella a ride home from the movies, and she forgot something in my car, so I went back to give it to her."

"Oh, I thought something happened.. I see, well, I was just calling you to let you know that your aunt Rose and I were on the phone most of the day. And Brad might be coming by to stay at the house for a while. Your uncle Nick and aunt Rose are fighting again, andyour aunt doesn't want him to stay with your uncle. So since Brad still has to go to school, Aunt Roseasked if he couldstayat the house for a bit, and she left to go stay at Grandma's. He's transferring from West High to East, and starts on Tuesday. So make sure he gets settled in the guest room for now will you? He should be arriving tomorrow.."

"They're fighting again? Alright Mom, no problem. I can introduce him to the guys and everything. So how's the beach?"

"It's beautiful. Well I got to go. Call me when and if Brad arrives alright? Love you!"

"Love you too. Bye."

Troy finished changing, washed up, and went back to his room. He found the guys fixing their blankets and sleeping bags on the floor while watching the sports channel.

"Hey what did your parents say?" Chad asked.

"Oh, my mom wanted to let me know that my cousin Brad might be staying with us for a while. My aunt and uncle are fighting again, so he might be here tomorrow."

"That's cool." Jason said

"Yeah, where's he from?" Zeke asked

"West." Troy said.

"You have a cousin at West! I never knew that." Chad said surprised.

"Well I _did _have a cousin at West.. He's transferring to East on Tuesday." Troy said getting into his bed.

"Oh, so what's he like?" Zeke said.

"He's pretty chill. Kinda shy. Last I remembered he plays tennis or something like that. I haven't seen him in a few years though"

"So then it'll kinda be like a reunion.. but he'll be meeting all of us since we're here for the rest of the weekend" Jason said

"Yeah, well, I'm tired. Night guys." Troy said. And the guys all got into their blankets and sleeping bags.

Gabriella's Mom woke up around 4am to make sure she had everything. She opened the door to Gabriella's room, and just stood at the doorway admiring the fact that she knew her daughter was fitting in just fine. It usually took Gabriella longer to become so close with others since she became afraid to do so, always knowing they would end up moving again. Mrs. Montez was standing at the doorway for a few minutes and noticed that Gabriella woke up and was smiling at her mother. Gabriella got out of the bed, and walked out of her room closing the door behind her so the girls wouldn't wake up.

"Hey Mom," she said smiling.

"Hey sweetie... I'm sorry I didn't mean to wake you..."

"No, it's fine Mom, I've been waking up constantly anyhow..."

"Why? Is something wrong?' They were downstairs sitting on the couch.

"No, I'm fine.." She trailed off..

"Gabby."

"Well, I guess I'm excited for tomorrow, err I should say today.. and a little bit overwhelmed about last night." She told her mother, letting out a huge smile that she knew she couldn't hold back.

"What happened? And what's today?" Gabriella explained everything to her mother about how she and Troy were finally getting somewhere, and that they were going out later.. Then her mother realized what time it was, and told her to go back to bed.

"I'll call you when I land.." She said hugging her daughter tight. "I love you."

"I love you too Mom. Have a safe trip" Gabriella said, embracing her mother, then letting go to kiss her on the cheek and run back upstairs.

* * *

Gabriella finally woke up around 10:30am to the sound of her cell ringing on her nightstand. She woke up, and saw the rose next to her cell phone and answered it smiling, not noticing the other girls were already awake and showered just staring at her from the other side of the room. 

"Hey!... Hmm, yeah sounds good... Okay... I'll talk to you later then. Bye" That was all the girls heard, other than a few laughs.

"Hey Gabby, your Mom called to say that she landed fine. But you were asleep and she said not to wake you since you were up early with her.." Taylor said, shocking Gabriella.

"Oh my gosh. How long have you guys been there! I thought you were all asleep still.."

"Trust me, we've been here long enough" Sharpay said slyly. "So, who just called you?"

"Yeah! who!" Kelsie added.

"Uhm, it was Troy.." She said blushing.

"Why? Did you order a wake-up call or something?" Taylor said jokingly, taking a seat next to Gabriella on the bed.

"No, nothing like that. We just made plans for today is all."

"Ohh like a date!" Sharpay said excited

"No, no, no. Just go-karting I think. We didn't really make it sound like a date... more like friends."

"Well, it sounds like a date to me, if it's just you two.. otherwise you guys would've invited the rest of us." Kelsie said smoothly, Taylor gave her a small little high five.

"Right you guys.." Gabriella said rolling her eyes.. She got up and took a quick shower. Once she was done with everything, the girls went downstairs to eat. After they ate, they started watching movies, and TV then Gabriella heard her cell phone ringing upstairs, and ran up to answer it..

"Hello?"

"Hey.. uhhhmm...I"

* * *

Sorry guys, but i think i'll cut it here while i'm still putting my ideas together in my head. LOL. i have a lot soo it's kinda hard. But yeah i'll try to update tomorrow. if not then ill prolly post within two days like i normally do..Sorry this is shorter than inormally write.. soo just because of that, i'll try and put up two chapters like i did last time if ihave time. aiight goREVIEW haha.


	9. The guys plan

Alright guys, looks like i won't be updating constantly like i used to.. More projects keeo coming out of nowhere, and i have to take classes online to make-up credits. Grr. But just to let you guys know, i AM still writing in class when i get bored. LOL. soo i have a lot written, it just needs to be typed. Blah blah blah, you guys can tell that i don't own anything except for the characters like Camille and Brad.. the runts stuff.. you know? Anything that wasn't part of the movie. HAHA.

* * *

"Hey.. uhhm.. I" The person fell silent for a few seconds and Gabriella looked at the screen on her phone to see if the person hung up, but they didn't, it just said private caller with the seconds ticking away..

"Hello?" She said again.

"Uhh.. Sorry. Bye"

"Okay?" She said looking confused as she double checked if there was a caller id. But there wasn't. So she just shrugged and headed back to the girls.

* * *

The Guys woke up late like they usually do. The first one up was Troy. He was too excited to sleep in as long as he normally would. He couldn't wait for today.. So he called Gabriella.

"Hey Gabby… So I was just calling to say that I'll come by and pick you up around 1:30. Sound good?... Great, well the guy's are just gonna chill at my house I think, I'm not sure, so you can tell the girls to come over too if they want, unless they're all going out today as well. But yeah, I got to go, the guys are starting to wake up, I'll call you when I'm on my way.. Bye." Troy sighed in relief. _That went well _he thought to himself and smiled. He didn't notice the guys were already awake and listening to his phone call since the beginning.

"Aw, we're not invited?" Chad said putting on a puppy face. Troy just threw a pillow at him.

"So this part of your plan that you were talking about?" Jason asked.

"Actually no. My plan doesn't come into action until Monday."

"Oh."

"Hey Ryan so what's going on between you and Camille?" Troy said trying to change the subject.

"Oh, I just asked her out yesterday."

"Hey man, she's really cute, but of course I've got Taylor I've never seen her around school though.." Chad said.

"Yeah, she is." Ryan said. "Oh, well she moved here a little bit after Gabby did. I guess none of you guys noticed since there was a lot going on at that time."

"She's really quiet in class." Zeke said.

"Yeah, she is quiet, but she's pretty fun when you get to know her.." Ryan added.

"So are you two a couple now?"

"I'm not exactly sure yet… I wanted to do something for her for Valentine's day since it is this Tuesday.." He said trailing off

"WHAT!" Chad said. "Dude, I didn't even realize that Valentine's was here already."

"Yeah man, I've already got my plans set out for Sharpay and I. I think I'm gonna bake her a cake… just not sure what kind yet." Zeke said.

"Haha that's cool, I was planning on taking Kelsie somewhere if she agreed… but I'm still planning it." Jason said.

"Man Chad, you're a loser. That's what I've been planning this whole time… it's just instead of Tuesday, I'm gonna take Gabby out on Monday hopefully."

"Ughh, now I have to plan something for Taylor now that we're together. I just asked her to be my girlfriend with roses and everything. I don't know how else to top it."

"Haha it's okay man, you'll think of something. I just hope Gabby will want to go out on Monday.."

"She will man, if it's with you, I don't think she'll say no…" Chad said back. Then the guys started talking more, helping each other out. Then they all ate, played some basketball, showered, and talked more. Then Troy started to get ready just as his phone rang. He went to go pick up his phone reading "unknown caller"

"Hello?" Troy said answering his phone.

"Hey!" the voice said coming from the other side of the line

"Uhh?" Troy was confused, this person calling acted as if he knew him, but Troy didn't recognize the voice..

* * *

Sorry, my chapters keep getting shorter i know. But i don't have the time i used to a few days ago annd yeahh. I'll try typing more later tonight. Reviews are niice, and thanks to those of you who always do give reviews. 


	10. KevinMikko

Alright you guys, I'm starting to add in my new characters. Yeeeeahhhyuuuh. Haha. Soo i'll just put a little explaination ofthe ones you guys already know, and the onesthat are coming out in this chapterto help you guys out.. Most of them will stay in the story constantly.. some will only appear once or twice.. and so on. They're the only ones i own other than the storyline..

Camille;; A girl who just moved to Albuquerque a little after Gabriella did. She'll say where she's from later on when she comes back into the story. She isn't quite going out with Ryan _yet._(there aren't any promises..LOL) But she was his date to the movies.

Brad;; Brad is Troy's cousin, on Troy's mom's side of the family. (Mrs. Bolton's sister's son to be more clearer) Brad is also going to be a new student at East High, transfering from West High, and is going to stay with the Bolton's for a little. Many people didn't know that he was Troy's cousin.

Aunt Rose & Uncle Nick;; Rose is Mrs. Bolton's sister, who married a lazy guy, Nick. They argue a lot, mostly over financial business, which basically leads to all of their other fights. Rose is at her mother's house for now, while Nick is at their house, and Rose has Brad stay with the Boltons..

Kevin-Mikko;; Kevin is a formerbest friendof Troy, Zeke, Jason, and Chad, when they were all younger. He was also a basketball player, but had to move to California because his father couldn't get a job anywhere else. Heis going to start at East High, and hopefully reunite with everyone he knew in the past.

Flower Guy;; He delivered the roses and balloons to Taylor from Chad.

Mysterious Caller who called Gabriella;; Most of you guys prolly got him confused with the one that called Troy. But the one who called Troy was actually Kevin. This character will berevealed later.

Alright so did that clear things up a bit for you guys? LOL. Hopefully. Haha i didn't want you guys to keep reading this, then have to go back to previous chapters just to remember who they are.. Alright guys, here's chapter 10! Yeeeaaayuhh! Haha, i still have a lot more written, but this was all i had time to type for today. Weeee 100 reviews! makes me happy..

* * *

"Hey Troy," The voice said, again, not saying who it was. Troy was puzzled.

"Hey uh, who is this?" Troy set his cell phone down so he could finish putting on his clothes. He had a red shirt that he decided to wear since Valentine's Day was coming up, and wore a white collared polo under with the collar hanging over, a grey jacket with red stripes, and his white and red dunks.

"Hmm, yeah, I figured you wouldn't recognize my voice. We haven't seen each other in a few years, ever since I moved from Albuquerque…" the person let out a quiet sigh, but it was loud enough that Troy could hear it on the other end of the phone. Troy stood still looking at his phone, frozen, finally realizing who the person was on the line.

**

* * *

**Gabriella started to get ready after she realized that Troy was coming to pick her up in about an hour and a half. She went upstairs to take another shower because she was nervous, and didn't know what to do or expect. After about 20 minutes in the shower, she got out, and walked into her walk-in closet to decide on what to wear. She finally decided on wearing a white tunic wife beater, layering a red one top that was a little shorter, jeans, a thin white zip up hoodie, and red converse. After she changed, she went back into the bathroom, dried her hair, and then decided to put it up like she did when Troy first snuck onto her balcony to apologize. After that she brushed her teeth, put very little natural-toned make-up on(not that she needed it), and put some lip gloss on. She took one last look in the mirror to make sure she looked okay, and headed back downstairs to join the girls.

* * *

"Hello? Dude, Troy? You still there?" 

"Oh my gosh.." Troy gasped.

"Yeah I thought you'd react like that once you found out. Mikko?" His real name was Kevin-Mikko, but he went by Kevin or Mikko.

"Yep that's me."

"Oh man! Dude, I haven't talked to you in almost… Oh man, I've lost track of the years.. We only kept in touch for a year after you left, then everything just stopped." The tone in Troy's voice shifted.

"Yeah, sorry about that man. Things just started getting hectic after a year; with the curriculum here, and then my parents split…" Kevin trailed off.

"I'm sorry about your parents…" Troy said sympathetically.

"Naw man, it's cool.. My mom deserves better anyhow. I'm surprised she even put up with him so long."

"Oh, so how'd you get my number Kevin?" Troy was curious because he had changed his number about a year ago.

"Oh, I called some of the old gang up, and some of them still had the same numbers. And I was talking to them, and they asked if I still kept in touch with you, and I told them no, so they gave me your new number.

"Haha, that's cool man. So what's up? How's California?"

"It's good."

"So why are you calling everyone all of a sudden? Something wrong?"

"No, actually, since my parents split, I didn't want to stay with my dad, since he can't even take care of himself, and my grandparents still live in Albuquerque, we moved back, and my mom and I are gonna live with them until we find a place of our own." He said Happily.

"You're kidding right!" Troy was Psyched.

"No lie man. I think I start at East High on Monday.. Never heard of it before though.."

"Haha. They built it after you left."

"Oh that's cool."

"Well then, I guess you'll have fun all by yourself then.." Troy said

"What? What do you mean? No one we knew goes there?"

"Haha, naw man, we all do; me, Zeke, Jason, Chad, and so on." Troy said as he was walking to his bathroom to fix his hair.

"Then what are you talking about?"

"Haha, we have a long weekend; we don't have school on Monday.."

"Oh.."

"Yeah, so have you talked to Chad yet?"

"Nope. Not yet."

"Haha, you should wait till school starts… I wanna see his face when he sees you."

"Haha, alright. Hey man, what are you doing today? I seriously need to get out of this house soon."

"Uh, I'm going out with a friend today.."

"Oh…"

"Hey we should chill tomorrow; you, me, Jason, and Zeke, if they're not doing anything. I think Chad has a date.. So the whole surprise for him won't be ruined."

"Haha, sounds good to me. Well, I gotta go help my mom. Call me tomorrow so we can chill."

"Alright. Bye"

"Bye." They hung up. And then Troy's cell phone started to ring after he finally finished his hair.

* * *

Hmm, well theres chapter ten.. GO REVIEW NOW! haha, sorry things aren't as cute as i usually make them, lol, everything and anything NEVER stays cute. LOL. Soo no worries. Things will get cute, but then again, things will hit rock bottom. 


	11. Lost Track of Time

Hmm I forgot who asked it, but Kevin-Mikko is his first name only. Haha it's weird i know, but i couldn't decide on which name, so i just combined it. Anywhoo. Thanks for the reviews guys, keep em coming. This chapter is a bit short, but i did it onpurpose. and i already have chapter 12 waiting, but i wanna see your guys' input on this one, so leave reviews.. **

* * *

**

Troy's phone started to ring again. He walked over to his bed and answered it.

's phone started to ring again.He walked over to his bed and answered it. 

"Hello?" He didn't know who was calling because the caller ID said "private caller".

"Hey Troy, it's Brad. My mom got your number from you mom and told me to call you."

"Oh. Hey Brad. Deng, I didn't recognize your voice."

"Yeah, well we haven't really seen or talked to each other in a long time."

"That's true. So when are you coming over? My mom told me last night you were."

"Uh, my mom wanted me to come over right now. But I already had plans, and I was gonna go hang out with some friends. So I was calling to ask if I could just drop off my stuff at your house sometime soon or something."

"Yeah. Go ahead. You can come over right now if you want. If I'm not home then you can just got into the back, and leave it on the back porch, because I'm going out soon…" Troy said as he was walking down the stairs to find his keys.

"Alright. I'll probably be at your house before 8 because my mom said she was gonna call your house to see if my dad didn't stop me from going."

"Haha, okay. I'll see you later then."

"Bye." Troy went into the living room once he found his keys to ask what the guys were doing today.

"Hey we heard you talking a lot up there, who were you talking to?" Zeke asked.

"Oh, Brad called and said he might drop off his stuff, and if I don't see him then, he'll be here by 8."

"Oh, I see."

"Hey, weren't you supposed to go out with Gabby already?" Chad asked.

"Nope. Not yet, I think I'm still early."

"What time were you planning on leaving?" Ryan asked.

"1:30"

"Uhh, Troy, I think you took too much time on your hair." Jason said laughing a little.

"Dude, that was like an hour ago!" Chad said.

"What! No way. Oh man, she probably thinks I stood her up or something… I'll see you guys later, the spare key is on the kitchen table if you guys are gonna go out." Troy said on his way out the door grabbing his things.

"Good thing we reminded him" Ryan said focusing back on the basketball game they were watching."

* * *

"You're sure dressed up like it's a date.." Kelsie said as she saw Gabriella walking into the living room.

"What are you talking about Kels?" Gabriella said, she just wanted to look casual, yet nice and pretty without making it look like she was trying too hard or anything.

"Oh c'mon Gabby. You're either full of Wildcats spirit, or you're trying to look nice without your outfit screaming ' Troy, I'm madly in love with you!'" Sharpay said, "Trust me, when it comes to fashion, I know these things."

"She's got a point Gabby, she does know a lot about fashion." Taylor said.

"My goodness you guys, do you want me to change or something?"

"No, no you look beautiful. In fact, I bet Troy will love it." The girls laughed, then they started watching TV. Then, after a commercial break of the show they started talking again.

"Oh, Troy said you guys can go hang out at his house with the guys if you want." She said remembering what he said on the phone earlier.

"Hmm, it's okay, we're just gonna go shopping or something." Sharpay said.

"Hey Gabby, when are you leaving?" Taylor asked after she looked at her phone.

"Um, Troy said he'd pick me up at 1:30. Why?"

"Gabby, you know that was like 30 minutes ago right?"

"You're kidding right?"

"No, she isn't" Kelsie said, double checking the time on her phone as well. Sharpay did the same.

"I don't get it, why is Troy late? He wouldn't seem like the kind of person to be late for a date.." Sharpay said.

"It's not a date," Gabriella said, still thinking it was a date deep down. _I wonder where he is? Is he standing me up? He's not that kind of guy. I know Troy.. he's too sweet to do that.. _she thought.

"Hmm, it's okay, Gabby, something probably just came up, and it's delaying him.." Taylor said reassuring her, she didn't want to see Gabriella hurt; especially by Troy. So they just kept watching TV. Gabriella was fidgeting with her phone the entire time, trying to stay calm. Suddenly the doorbell rang. _Thank goodness. _Gabriella thought. _I knew he wouldn't do that to Gabby_ Taylor thought.

* * *

Troy was on the other side the door holding a dozen red&white roses for her. It looked cute because it matched his outfit. He was nervous because he didn't know what to expect. He didn't know if Gabriella would be mad, or happy. Then he started to pace in front of the door, and finally rang the doorbell.

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I'll leave it here. Go review! haha will Gabriella get mad? Dun dun dun.


	12. You did it wrong

Well, here's chapter 12 you guys. Hope you like it haha, my reviews are dying down! why! maybe thats why i've been writing less. Oh well, it's your call you guys whether i go on with this story of not.. Oh! and just to let you guys know, Troy and Gabriella had no intentions of matching, haha. I didn't plan on doing that either, i was wearing red the day i wrote it, soo yeahh... once again, my personal life flows into this. Haha.

* * *

"Hey Troy." Gabriella said answering the door. 

"Hey Gabby!" He said smiling, "Hey Kels, Tay, Sharpay." He said noticing that they were all standing behind Gabriella. She didn't know and turned around to see that they were standing behind her, and they just smiled at her.

"I'm sorry I'm late Gabby… Here, these are for you." He said

"Thank you Troy! You didn't have to."

"But I wanted to." He insisted.

"Here, I'll take those and put em in water for you Gabby, you guys should get going." Taylor said taking the roses from her.

"Thanks Tay. Uh theres an extra key on my dresser if you guys go out. See you later."

"Bye guys." Troy said.

"You two have fun!" the three girls screamed as Troy and Gabriella left.

"I really am sorry I'm late Gabby." Troy said as they were driving.

"It's okay. Haha, at least you showed up. So what held you back?"

"Oh, well, an old best friend of guys and I moved back here from California, and I guess we were on the phone long than I though catching up and stuff. Then my cousin called me because he's gonna be staying with us for a while."

"Oh, well then, that's no reason to be sorry. Haha, I lost track of the time anyways."

"Haha, so we're good then?"

"Of course!"

* * *

Back at Gabriella's House. 

"How cute!" Sharpay said once they closed the door.

"Oh my gosh! Did you see that! They were matching!" Kelsie exclaimed.

"Haha I know! And the roses even matched!" Taylor said excited.

"They make such a cute couple." Sharpay said. "I wish I had a camera. That was a Kodak moment." They all laughed.

"So what do you guys want to do today?" Taylor asked.

"Hmm, I don't know." Kelsie said.

"Shopping!" Sharpay said.

"Haha, where?"

"Oh! Let's got to that huge mall. The one that's like 30 minutes away." Sharpay said excitedly.

"30 minutes!" Kelsie asked

"Yeah, but that mall is huge. They've got everything.. or well you know what I mean." Taylor said.

"Yeah, simply put, it's way way better than the mall here, even though there's nothing wrong with the mall here.." Sharpay started rambling.

"Okay, I get it." Kelsie said.

The girls got ready to go and left.

* * *

"So what do you guys wanna do today?"Jason asked. The guys were outside in Troy's backyard playing basketball. 

"Let's go out and finish up our plans for Valentine's day, I still need to find something for Taylor." Chad said after making a basket.

"I'm down for that. I still need to go shopping for something for Sharpay." Zeke said.

"Yeah, I wanna find something for Camille." Ryan added after trying to shoot the ball.

"So are you serious with Camille?" Jason asked.

"Yeah, I really like her."

* * *

Troy and Gabriella finally got the little go-kart place. It was like a small version of an amusement park but kind of like a circus that stayed in place all year long. There was a ferris wheel, games, and everything. 

"I thought we were gonna go go-karting?" Gabriella asked as they got out of the car.

"We are, haha, there's just other stuff here too."

"Oh, haha okay. It still looks fun" She said smiling. She and Troy walked to the ticket booth to pay to get in.

"Two please." Troy said taking out his wallet. Gabriella was pulling hers out of her purse.

"It's okay Gabby. I got it" he said smiling.

"No, it's okay Troy, you paid for the food last night.. let me."

"No, haha, I wanted to take you out, so I'm paying" He insisted.

"Fine." She pouted jokingly and they laughed, walked over to the man, gave him the tickets. After they gave him the tickets, he put yellow wrist-bands on their wrists and let them in.

"So you think you can beat me in a race Bolton?" Gabriella laughed

"Well, we all know that I am the better driver when it comes down to you and I"

"We'll see about that." Gabriella walked away to get into her own car and troy did the same. The course looked simple, if you were watching, but on the track it was difficult. The flags were waved, and they zoomed off. Gabriella was ahead in first place throughout all 5 laps. Troy was battling for second with another racer, followed by all the other people that were racing as well. In the end Gabriella finished first and Troy barely got second.

"You were saying?" Gabriella was laughing.

"Hey, it's not my fault, there was something wrong with mine!"

"Right… So what do you want to do next?"

"Hmm, I don't know, how about we walk around and see what there is to do." Troy said walking past her. As he did, he grabbed her hand.

"Smooth move." She said smiling. "But you did it wrong." Troy stopped and looked at her.

"See you do it like this," letting go of his hand and grabbing it again so that their fingers interlocked.

"Oh." He said sarcastically. "Sorry I'm not as smart as you." He joked.

"Haha, it's okay, you did it right in the first place, I just wanted it like this" she admitted pulling up their hands to refer to it then giggled.

"Want to know a secret?" Troy asked.

"Hmm?"

"I did too." He said kissing her on the cheek causing her to blush.

* * *

Uhh yeahh, in the next chapter, more of Troy's and Gabriella's "Date" that's claimed not to be a date. LOL. The mall with the gals, the guys go out.. annd Brad shows up?maybe. Haha. REVIEW 3


	13. 8 trials and a photobooth

Sorry about making you guys wait longer than usual! My computer went all crazy, and broke down, but we got it fixed! Haha,this is just part of the 10 pages i typed out on MS word because i was bored. LOL. **8 trials and a photobooth,** haha the title sounds like something about court..Well, i think you guys who love all that CUTE stuff i do, you'll love this, so you BETTER review. Haha. Uhh, i should be able to update tomorrow, but i made this chapter longer than i was planning to, and cut it off in the middle of the original ch.14. So enjoy!**

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**

Kelsie, Taylor, and Sharpay finally arrived at the mall.

"Whoa. I can't believe I've lived in Albuquerque my whole life, and never heard of this place." Kelsie said as they got out of the car.

"Are you serious!" Sharpay was shocked She came here at least once a month.

"Yeah, I only come out here like once or twice a year." Taylor added as they walked into the doors."

"WHOA!" Kelsie said again, this time her jaw dropped. "This place is HUGE!"

"Haha, it's only about three times bigger than our local mall." Sharpay said.

"Yeah, and you know, there are even bigger malls than this in other places." Taylor added.

They walked around the mall, and bought things, the barely got to the second floor when they decided to eat. They saw the food court on the first floor, but decided they weren't hungry yet, but once they got to the second floor and saw the second floor food court, they were starving. After they ate, they continued on with the second floor, and made their way to the third. They all bought new clothes; Sharpay even bought a few pairs of shoes. After 5 or 6 hours at the mall they were done. Taylor and Kelsie were exhausted, but Sharpay was used to shopping long hours so she offered to drive home.

* * *

Surprisingly the guys went to the same mall as the girls. But they didn't run into each other since the place was so big. They were all clueless of what to buy. They walked in and out of stores empty-handed. They stopped to eat on the first floor when they first saw it, about the same time girls stopped to eat on the second floor. They walked through the second floor empty-handed. The guys were getting near the end of the third floor when they noticed a store called Loved Ones. They all walked in, and the whole store was dedicated to anything that had to do with love. After walking around they all found presents for the girls and went to the register to pay. Chad even bought a book with over 1000 ways to be sweet, romantic, and thoughtful; he thought it could help him as well as the rest of the gang plus it was on sale. After that, all the guys agreed that they should get going since it was 7:45.

* * *

Troy and Gabriella walked around hand in hand going on rides, and playing games. He won her a fat penguin after trying to knock down all the pins in a game 6 times. The guy running the booth helped Troy out by kicking the table to knock the rest of the pins down knowing that Troy was trying to impress Gabriella. Luckily she didn't notice. Then they walked by a photo booth, and Gabriella spotted it. She pulled Troy inside and they sat down. 

"Haha, I've always wanted to take pictures in one of these, but every time my friends and I found one, they were always broken." she said, putting the $3 in.

"Haha, you're weird sometimes..." he smiled

"And so are you" she said looking at him smiling back. Then there was a flash, and the booth took the photo. They laughed then looked at the little camera together and smiled. Right before the camera was about to flash, Troy kissed her cheek while she was smiling, and the booth to another photo.

"Haha" she blushed, "Can't we take a normal one?"

"Haha, fine" Troy said. They both smiled at the camera again, this time Gabriella turned and kissed his cheek when the booth took the photo.

"I thought we were taking a normal one?" Troy asked surprised.

"I lied" she giggled. They had one more picture left. They both made weird faces, thinking that the other wouldn't notice, which they didn't. Then they walked out and waited for their pictures to be developed. The picture strips finally came out, giving double prints, once for each of them. Gabriella looked at them, laughed, and pulled him back into the booth.

"Okay, we're gonna take a normal picture this time." She said inserting the money again.

"If you say so." They smiled at the camera, and then the booth took the picture. They sat there and looked at each other while they waited for the next picture, Troy leaned in to kiss her on the lips, and the booth took a photo as he was leaning in. It took another photo when they finally kissed. The fourth picture was taken when they broke apart, looking at each other.

They walked out and waited for the pictures again this time in silence. They got the pictures and Gabriella handed him his copies. Then Gabriella finally broke the silence.

"Uhhm, I think we should get going. It's getting dark." She said.

"Yeah, this place is about to close soon." They walked out to Troy's car and the car ride home was silent. When they arrived Troy got out of the car to open the door for Gabriella.

"I guess the girls went out, Taylor's car is gone." Gabriella said as they were walking to her porch.

"Oh, do you want me to wait here until they come back?" Troy asked.

"No, it's okay, I'm a big girl" she laughed. "Thank you for offering though"

"Anytime."

"I had a great time today, thank you."

"Yeah I did too. Uhh... I was wondering if you wanted to go somewhere with me on Monday. So what do you say?"

"Hmm. No. I think I'll pass." She said.

Troy had a facial expression that said "what did you say?"

"Haha, I'm kidding Troy, I'd love to." She said.

"Great." He smiled, and leaned in to kiss her, this one was a little bit longer than the one in the photo booth.

"Uhm I should get going, my cousin is gonna be at my house soon, I'll call you later."

"Okay, bye!" she said waving as he left. She opened the front door, and leaned on it as she closed it. _Wow_ she thought and went upstairs to change with a huge smile on. _Wow_ Troy thought as he got into his car, he paused for a second giving it time to sink in, then drove off.

* * *

After Gabriella finished changing, she sat down on her bed and looked at the 8 pictures she and Troy took together, staring at them for a few minutes. She put them back inside her purse; suddenly she heard the front door open and footsteps trailing up the stairs. 

"Hey Gabby are you here?" They called out.

"Yeah, I'm in my room." Then Kelsie, Sharpay, and Taylor walked into the room. "So where did you three go?"

"We went to the mall... the one that's like 30 minutes away" Sharpay answered.

"Hmm I've never been there yet."

"Oh my goodness, that place is gigantic." Kelsie said laughing.

"Haha you should've seen Kelsie's reaction when we walked in." Taylor said laughing.

"Anyways, how was your day with Troy?"

"Great actually, even if he was late I don't think it made much of a difference." Gabriella said with the smile she had on after she and Troy kissed.

"Okay Gabby, spill." Taylor said. "Yeah" Sharpay and Kelsie chimed in.

"I know you well enough to know that you're hiding something" Taylor said.

"Hmm?" Gabriella wasn't paying attention. "What did you say?"

"Wow, you're not even paying attention, something _did_ happen!" Taylor said excited.

* * *

Troy pulled up in his driveway, and got out of the car, and went inside to find an empty house. He went out to the back porch to see if Brad dropped off his stuff, and found a few bags of things piled up right next to the door. Troy brought them inside up into the guest room to save Brad the trouble since he was a guest in the house, then went into his room and took out the pictures he took with Gabby. He was lying down on his bed when he heard the doorknob start to open, and quickly put the pictures back in to his pocket. Jason, Zeke, Chad and Ryan walked in without suspecting anything. 

"Hey guys."

"Hey Troy" They all said back

"So where'd you all go?" Troy asked.

"We went to that far mall to go find things for the girls for Valentine's Day…" Chad said while he was reading the book he bought.

"Oh. Wow Chad, you're actually reading…" Troy chuckled.

"Yeah well, like they say 'love makes you do crazy things'" Chad said looking up from his book. "Besides this thing has some pretty good ideas."

"What is it?" Troy asked.

"It basically gives you ideas of how to be romantic and sweet and all that stuff" Zeke answered him since Chad fell silent, reading again.

"Oh, haha, I think I'll borrow that sometime then." Troy laughed. Then the doorbell rang.

"That's probably Brad" Troy said. "I'll be right back guys." He said walking out of his room. He ran down the stairs an opened the door. There was a guy standing at the door, around 6"1', slim, short spiked brown hair, lightly tanned around the same tone as Gabriella, greenish-brown eyes, his face was a similar resemblance to Troy, he was wearing a brown dress shirt buttoned halfway with a wife beater under, torn jeans and brown sandals, and had his hands in his pockets. This was Brad.

* * *

Haha, you guys like? Well, Brad is here! dun dun dun. what to expect from this feller, i'll let you wait. Uhm, i wont bring back Camille into the story until the gang gets back to school... just to let all you Ryan fans out there know. LOL. Thanks for the reviews guys! i think thats why i typed out 10 pages the other day.. LOL! soo keep the reviews coming so i can have more motive! See you guys in Ch.14.. 


	14. You look REALLY different

Here's Chapter 14 guys! Haha i knew you'd like the photobooth thing. LOL. Well.. Here comes BRAD! Dun Dun Dun.

* * *

"Hey Troy!"

"Uh hi"

"Haha. It's me Brad..."

"Oh man. Haha. You look REALLY different." Troy remembered him with thick rim glasses, a bit chubby, blond hair, shorter, and always wearing shirts that has weird sayings. He remembered seeing him with a shirt with a random quote thatsaid "Snails are slow" and that's all it said.

"Yeah, I've changed a lot."

"Yeah, oh, come on in. I found your stuff out back, so I brought it up into the guest room when I got home."

"Thanks man, I could've done it myself you know..."

"No problem, you're a guest."

"Haha, but I have to pull my own weight around here since I'm gonna be living here for a while…"

"Hah, so what do you want me to do? Carry them back out so you can bring it up yourself?" Troy joked.

"Nah, haha. But thanks."

"No problem. Oh let's go upstairs, my friends are here too, they're spending the weekend here. You can meet them, they go to East too."

"Alright. I've gotta make some friends over here some time right?" He joked and followed Troy upstairs. They walked into the room and found the guys watching TV, and Chad still reading his book leaning against Troy's bed.

"Hey guys this is my cousin Brad."

"Hey wussup guys"

"This is Jason, Zeke, Ryan, and that's Chad over there reading so he can impress his girlfriend haha."

"Haha, nice to meet you guys."

"Man, I seriously wouldn't have recognized you if you didn't say anything at the door." Troy said. He was still shocked from how much they've both changed.

"Yeah well, you look different too."

"Haha, not really…" Troy said trying not to think about it.

"Haha, I remember different. Last time I saw you, you were short with braces, and always had a basketball jersey on."

"My dad always made me wear those..."

"Haha, he's still pushing you?"

"Yep. He's still the same."

"His dad pushes all of us…" Jason said

"You guys all play basketball?" Brad asked

"Yep, how about you… play any sports?" Zeke asked

"I play tennis."

"Sounds cool." Ryan chimed in.

"Ever try basketball?" Chad put his book down.

"Yeah, I play every once in a while, but tennis is more of my thing."

"Haha, well you should play with us since you're here now."

"Sounds good to me. Hey Troy, uhh where's my stuff?"

"Oh, haha I think I should show you your room huh?"

"Haha, yeah that would be good." Troy led him down the hall to the guest room.

"This is your room." Troy said opening the door. Brad found his bags set next to the wall. "You can hang up your stuff in the closet... there's extra hangers inside, and use the dressers over there." He said pointing at them. "I'll show you where everything else is later and I'll let you get settled. I'll be in my room with the guys..."

"Thanks"

* * *

Gabriella was laughing.

"There's nothing wrong with smiling… takes less muscles to smile rather than to frown."

"Yeah Gabby, we all know that, stop trying to change the subject…" Sharpay said.

"C'mon Gabby, we're all best friends! Tell us what happened today!" Kelsie pleaded.

"Fine. Haha only because I love you guys."

"YAY!"

"Well, I beat him in a race." That was all she said… she started giggling and she walked into the bathroom, grabbing her pajamas on the way.

"What?" Sharpay said with a blank look on her face.

"That was so unfair." Taylor said. Then they started to laugh a little.

"Oh well, she'll eventually tell us, or we'll find out." Kelsie stated.

"True." Sharpay and Taylor said in unison, "But I still I hate being in suspense." Taylor added. Then they got changed into their pajamas as well once they saw Gabriella come out of the bathroom.

* * *

Brad finished hanging up his clothes, and putting the rest of his things in place. He was a really organized person; he had books on top of the desk according to size, clothes separated by color, shirts, pants, etc. He saw Troy walk into the room just as he finished hanging his last shirt in the closet and closing it.

"Hey, your mom and my mom want to talk to you. They did that three-way thing girls like to do. Haha." Troy said.

"Haha alright." He said grabbing the phone from Troy.

"Hey, when you're done, we're watching a movie downstairs and pizza is on its way if you want to join us."

"Sure." Brad nodded and Troy went back downstairs. "Hello?" He spoke into the receiver. "Yeah, Dad didn't stop me or anything, no worries mom. Yep, Troy is helping me out a lot… He introduced me to his friends and helped me with my stuff… Yep... Mhmmm… Okay… Alright, love you two too. Bye" He hung up the phone, and went downstairs to join the rest of the guys and handed the phone over to Troy.

"Your Mom and Dad are gonna be back Monday night." Brad told him.

"What? They weren't gonna come back until Tuesday night…" Troy said confused.

"Well, I heard your dad in the background talking about a new basketball drill he came up with."

"Great… More drills to go over" Zeke complained.

They all laughed and finished up the movie eating pizza. Jason and Ryan fell asleep on the couches, so the guys didn't wake them up since they were already in their pajamas, they just threw blankets on top and left their pillows for them to use. Then they all went to sleep around 12.

* * *

It was only about 9 when the girls were done changing and washing up. So they decided to just talk. Kelsie, Taylor and Sharpay made a bet to see who could get Gabriella to spill what happened in the least amount of attempts, and they told Kelsie to keep track.

"Okay, Gabby we're gonna play 20 questions." Sharpay said in her first attempt.

"Why?" Gabriella answered?

"Because, I'm bored." Sharpay stated. Taylor was trying to think of a way she could get Gabriella to spill.

"No." She simply stated.

"C'mon Gabby, how about ONE question?" She pleaded.

* * *

Haha, will she play 20 questions? I mean.. ONE question. HAHA. Yeeeeahh. Well, nows the time to review! I'll probably post another chapter tonight IF i get enough reviews to convince me to HAHA. So go REVIEW so you can get another chapter tonight while its still early! See you in Ch. 15 


	15. Cooking with Zeke

Sorry if you don't like my HAHA-ing. Like i said, i write this during class and whenever i have free time and i just write whatever comes out. I don't really proof read my things, so i never really notice. So i'll TRY cutting the HAHAs down, but no promises. Sometimes things don't make sense without them to me. LOL. Soo yeah, Here's Ch. 15

* * *

"Fine. Just one" Taylor looked at Sharpay, shocked.

"YAY! Okay, hmm…" Sharpay was trying to think of a way to ask her without her noticing what she was doing. "Okay, what's one thing that's made you the HAPPIEST, I mean out of everything that's happened to you today; the HAPPIEST?"

"Hmm…" Gabriella said _the _**thing**_ that's made me the happiest_ she thought... "The photo booth." She said simply again.

"What the? I said what made you the happiest today." Sharpay said.

"No, you said what THING, made me the happiest." Gabriella said laughing. "So I said the photo booth, which is a thing. It's not like you said noun, which would've been a person, place, or thing."

"Darn, I forgot." Sharpay said, already thinking of a new way.

"Burned." Kelsie muttered under her breath, laughing a little. Taylor decided to wait a little before she attempted, just so that Gabriella wouldn't notice. So after watching TV for a bit, she brought up Chad.

"Chad asked me to go out with him tomorrow you guys!" She said randomly.

"Really!" Gabriella said interested. "So are you two a couple now or something?"

"Hmm, he asked me in person Friday night, when he and the other guys drove us home from the movies... and I said yes. How about you Gabby?"

"No not yet," Gabriella sighed thinking about Troy without even realizing what Taylor just said. "I mean we had a good time today, but we never really talked about it..." She trailed off.

"Who's winning now..." Taylor whispered to Sharpay. Kelsie started laughing at that, and then Gabriella started speaking.

"But that's alright I guess, as long as we had a great time is all that matters right?"

"So then what did you guys do?" Taylor tried to keep the conversation flowing.

"Uhh we went to this place, it's like a carnival almost, but a theme park? I don't know how to explain it. Uhh, like the Santa Monica pier and all that, how they have games, a roller coaster and all that stuff."

"Oh, I know what place you're talking about. I used to go there!" Kelsie said.

"I remember going there in 6th grade for a field trip." Taylor said.

"Yeah, it was fun though."

"So what did you and Troy do?" Taylor kept pushing.

"Played games, raced, basically everything there is to do there. He won me a penguin haha, but not really, the guy kicked the table to help Troy out, but it was still sweet." The girls laughed, but still got nothing out of her. Taylor and Sharpay both tried again, but failed. They both gave up for that night, but Taylor was in the lead with only 2 attempts because Kelsie caught Sharpay trying again before they fell asleep.

* * *

It was Sunday morning when they all woke up The guys woke up late as usual except for Zeke, who was used to waking up early on Sundays just out of habit. So, he decided to cook breakfast for the guys since he was awake. Brad on the other hand wasn't like the rest of the guys as well, he too was awake early, and heard Zeke rummaging around the kitchen, so he decided to go downstairs. Brad found Zeke preparing a breakfast as if it were served in a restaurant; he had seven plates out. Six were for each of the fellas, and the last one was bigger, to put extra in case the guys wanted more. Zeke was cooking scrambled eggs when Brad came in.

"Oh, hey Brad. I'm sorry, did I wake you?" Zeke turned around as he saw him enter the kitchen.

"No, I'm usually awake early on Sundays." Brad answered, "So, Zeke right? What are you up to?"

"Oh, well, I'm usually awake early on Sundays too, so I thought I'd cook breakfast for everyone, since I usually do so for my family if I'm the first awake."

"Sounds cool, need any help?"

"Uh, yeah sure, can you start the pancake mix?"

"No problem, at least I can't burn em that way if I'm just starting it" Brad joked. "So you like to cook?" He asked while he was looking for the pancake mix in the cupboards.

"Yeah, I love it; hopefully I can take it further after high school. How about you, cook much?"

"I help my mom out a lot since my dad is kinda lazy, but I never really cooked a full meal on my own without it being burnt a little."

"Haha, that's cool, so I guess it's hard right now, I mean coming here to live with Troy for a bit and transferring schools and all?"

"Well, in a way it is, I mean, it's not like I missed much in tennis, I've got good grades, but I guess it's hard with the family situation." Brad said pouring the powder mix into a bowl. "But you guys are pretty cool, good thing you guys were here this weekend too; otherwise I would've felt weird starting school only knowing Troy."

"Well that's good to hear. So you gonna miss West?"

"The school's curriculum wasn't the best, I've always heard East was way better, even the tennis team defeated us every match, but the people are nice once you get to know them."

"Well, I think you'll do fine at East, mostly everyone is pretty nice; ever since the triple win thing. And I think there's still room on the tennis team too…" Zeke said placing eggs on the plates neatly.

"Really? That's cool. Triple win?" Brad asked, handing Zeke the batter for him to start cooking.

"Oh, uhh, well, it was the day of championship game, academic decathlon thing, and winter musical callbacks. And we won the basketball game, the academic decathlon team won theirs, and Troy and our friend Gabriella, from the decathlon team, got the lead roles in the musical. So they won all three, and called it the 'triple win'." He explained.

"Wow. Troy the basketball guy, in a musical? I never would've seen that one coming."

"Hah, neither did the rest of the school… everyone kinda went crazy after they found out he had a callback."

"Deng, that's crazy. Troy and I used to be close when we were younger… but once high school started, we just went down our own paths."

"I see. So you think you'll pick up where you left off?"

"I don't know, we were different back then. Haha, I used to be such a nerd, and Troy was always the sporty guy." Brad said, and Zeke laughed putting the finished pancakes, two on each plate. They started to pick up the moist from the eggs, so Zeke took them off.

"That always happens."

"Here, let me help with that…" Brad said taking the plate of finished pancakes. He took out a knife, and took two pancakes, cut them into fourths, and placed it on the plate, overlapping them. Zeke noticed it gave it a nice style to the preparation and it didn't make the eggs' oil be absorbed the pancakes.

"Wow. I don't think I would've ever thought of that haha."

"I did it in a culinary class I had to take because there wasn't enough room in other classes."

"Well, it's clever," Zeke said, placing slices of strawberries on top of the pancakes.

"Thanks." They continued to put breakfast together.

* * *

There you go guys!Getting to knowBrad better..LOL does Gabriella spill?...Don't forget to review, anything you guys don't like or whatever just tell me, and if i agree after thinking about it, i'll fix it.. maybe. I'll try posting up another chapter tonight, but i have some things i need to do soo yeah, if i get like 20 reviews when i check my e-mail, i'll post one tonight. HAHA


	16. I WIN!

Hey guys, well sorry i didn't update like i said i would... Power went out last night, so i just slept LOL. Here's the chapter...

* * *

The girls woke up around 9:30, and were all awake by 10:00. Taylor was excited because Chad asked to go out with her today. She and Sharpay were still trying to get Gabriella to spill. Kelsie counted Taylor 9 and Sharpay 7 within the first hour that they were awake. They finally stopped trying while they went downstairs to eat breakfast. Gabriella would say something, but never get into details like the girls wanted. After they finished they headed back to Gabriella's room to so they could talk more, and take their showers. After they all showered and got dressed, they headed over to Taylor's house to help her pick out something to wear because she didn't bring anything special over to Gabriella's house since hooking up with Chad was unexpected. 

"Hmmm." Sharpay said as she was going through Taylor's closet, picking out possible outfits for Taylor to wear. "Here." She handed Taylor 6 outfits she put together, and pulled her out of the room to the bathroom, so Taylor could show her what it looked like on her.

Gabriella and Kelsie were still in Taylor's room talking, waiting for them to finish.

"I still don't get it Gabby, a photo booth… what's that supposed to mean?"

"Haha. I've always wanted to take pictures in one, but they were always broken when my friends and I found one. And I saw one at the place…" she was cut off by Kelsie.

"Ohh! Pictures! I want to see!"

Gabriella pulled out one of the picture strips from her purse. "Here." She said smiling, thinking it was just the one where Troy kissed her on the cheek, and she did the same to him.

"Oh. My. Goodness." Keslie said in shock, but was excited. "I see why you're soo happy now Gabby!"

"What?" She wondered why someone would think a kiss on a cheek would make someone think that they're so happy.

"You guys kissed!" She gasped. Gabriella grabbed the pictures, and saw that she handed the ones where she and Troy were kissing. Kelsie grabbed them back. "Aww, you guys look so cute!"

Right then Sharpay walked in; followed by Taylor in the outfit they chose. "What's cute?" Sharpay asked walking over to Kelsie to see that she was holding pictures.

"Oh my…" Sharpay said smiling, she saw the pictures, Taylor heard her and walked away from her mirror to see what they were talking about.

"How adorable!" Taylor screamed

"Hah! Looks like I win you two!" Kelsie said.

"But you weren't in on it…" Sharpay said.

"Yes I was, I just never tried so many times like you guys. I only tried ONCE" She said happily.

"Yeah, she was in on it…" Taylor admitted.

"Ugh, and we tried like what, 10 times!" Sharpay said disappointed.

"Uhm, what are you guys talking about? You guys made a bet that Troy and I would kiss?"

"No, we made a bet on who could get you to tell us what happened that's making you beam with happiness." Kelsie said.

"Haha yeah, now you can't lie Gabby, because pictures don't lie." Sharpay said handing Kelsie $20.

"But," Gabriella started.

"Haha no buts this time Gabby!" Taylor said handing Kelsie $20.

"Thanks guys," Kelsie said happily. "By the way Tay, you look great!"

"Thanks Kels. So how'd you get Gabby to spill?"

"I didn't even try; I was just confused of how a photo booth can be the thing that makes you the happiest."

"Oh, I should've thought of that." Sharpay said.

"So what do you think Gabby?" Taylor asked.

"Well, I'm kinda embarrassed." Gabby blushed.

"Not about that! I meant my outfit…"

"Oh sorry, you look fabulous!" Gabriella responded.

"Gabby, why should you be embarrassed? It's great that you and Troy kissed" Taylor said smiling as she went to sit next to Gabriella on her bed.

"I know, but it's like one of those naturally embarrassing moments. I don't know how to explain it."

"So, does this mean you two are a couple now?" Sharpay asked.

"No. I don't think we are. We hadn't really discussed it, so I guess not."

"Hmm. So why were you guys kissing in a photo booth anyhow?" Kelsie asked.

"Yeah, why? I mean it's kinda random, but in a cute way of course." Taylor laughed.

"Well, like I was telling Kels, I've always wanted to take pictures in one, but my friends and I never came across one that actually worked. And when I saw some at the place, I pulled Troy inside with me so I could finally take pictures." Gabriella explained.

"I still don't get how the kissing got involved." Sharpay stated.

"Haha, well I'm not done with my story yet… See, I just wanted a normal picture. But the first one, we didn't even know it started." She said pulling out the other set of pictures from her purse, showing the girls. "Then we posed for a normal one, but Troy kissed my cheek on the second one, then I kissed his on the third, don't ask why… it just felt right. Then the fourth one, we both made goofy faces, thinking that the other wouldn't notice…"

"Wow, you two are weird." Kelsie said looking at the funny faces that they made in the picture.

Gabriella laughed and continued. "Anyways, then when we got the prints, I realized we didn't take a normal one like I wanted, so we went back in, and we took a normal one. Then we were waiting for the next picture, and Troy started to lean in to kiss me, and then it took a picture, but I didn't even notice it, and then we kissed. And I guess the booth took a picture, but I didn't notice that one either. And we pulled apart… not noticing the last picture either…" Gabriella trailed off, smiling at the memory as she pictured it in her head.

"Awww" the three girls said around Gabriella.

"That's way too cute" Sharpay said. Taylor and Kelsie nodded their heads in agreement.

It was almost 1pm when the girls were finishing up at Taylor's house. They headed back to Gabriella's house because Chad was going to pick up Taylor from there at 2.

"Well, hopefully he won't be late like Troy was." Gabriella joked, as she was driving them back to her house.

"But hey, you guys still had a good time right?" Taylor argued nicely.

"Yeah, we had a great time."

"Obviously." Sharpay and Kelsie said in unison from the back seat.

* * *

Zeke and Brad finsihed putting breakfast together on the plates. When they set it on the table, with the extra in the middle, it looked like something you would expect from a restaurant. 

"Bienvenue à la cuisine de Zeke" Brad said with a French accent as he set down the last of the forks and spoons.

"What?" Zeke looked at him setting down the juice and milk cartons.

"It's French for 'Welcome to Zeke's Kitchen'"

"Oh. Well, I couldn't have done this without you." Zeke said. "You speak French?"

"Not a lot. I just know a little from what people teach me."

"Well, you could've fooled me." Zeke said. Then they were interupted by someone.

"I smell fooooooooooooooood." Chad said still half asleep.

"Hunger..." Jason walked in dragging his feet.

"Morning guys!" Ryan said happily as he walked in.

"Deng, what time did you guys wake up?" rubbing his eyes, making his way to the kitchen table to join everyone else.

"Earlier than you guys obviously." Brad chuckled.

"Breakfast is served!" Zeke said.

"Whoa!" Jason, Troy, Chad, and Ryan all said together finally realizing the food prepared on the table.

"Wow Zeke, mad skills." Chad said finally awake, picking up some of the syrup drizzled buttermilk pancakes up with his fork.

"Well, I couldn't have done it without Brad here." Zeke implied.

"Nice preparation guys." Ryan said

"It's delicious." Jason said with his mouth full.

"So you two partners in crime of the kitchen now?" Troy asked wiping syrup off his chin.

"Haha, I'm no chef." Brad said, taking a seat so he could begin eating. "The most experience I've had was at school."

"Well, you're still pretty good with your ideas" Zeke complemented.

"Thanks, but you're still way better than I bet I'll ever be."

"Thanks"

* * *

Alright guys that's the last of the 10 pages i had typed out. Oh well. So i might lag even more on my chapters because midterms are on there way, and i'm like on the verge of having 3 F's which isn't good in my case, since i'm a junior, and i'm already lagging credits! Argh. But whatever... i've been pulling em up gradually. Hopefully i can type out a grip of pre-written chapters again. OH! annd if any of you guys know French or anything annd you see something wrong with what brad said.. then its not my fault because i just used an online translator HAHA.

Next Chapter.. a little of Chad & Taylor's date(If you guys want it in there, tell me in the reviews), Troy spills?...maybe, the guys chill with Kevin-Mikko,girls hang out(maybe with Camille... If you guys wanna see her in the next one, tell me LOL) Yeahh..

Go review! get my motive going again like last time!


	17. I can read your face

AHHH! Sorry guys for the LONNNNNNNNG wait... but like i said, i'm working on pulling my grades up so i can graduate next year. Anyways, i've decided tosplit Chad&Taylor's date like i did Troy&Gabriella's.. Hope you guys like this! **

* * *

**

When the guys were finished eating breakfast, Chad immediately ran upstairs to go get ready; he wanted to look good. Once he got out of the shower, he dried his hair, and put on some warm-ups. Just like Taylor, he had no idea that he was gonna ask her out that weekend until the other day, so he drove home to change as well. None of the other guys wanted to go because, well, they were guys, and they were lazy. They also knew that it would get annoying to watch Chad as if he looked okay or not, then jump into his closet, come out in a different outfit, and go through the same routine until he decides on his own to go with the first choice that he picked out, which was always the best one anyhow. The guys knew this would happen if they went along because they went through that when they were getting ready for a party once. And they didn't want to go through that again and waste their time. After Chad left, the guys were just sitting in the kitchen talking.

"So how'd things go with Gabby?" Ryan asked. Troy just smiled for a moment at the sound of her name without even realizing it.

"It went good, nothing much to complain about."

"Nothing _much _to complain about?" Jason asked. Troy was smiling down at the table now.

"Yeah, we were playing a game, and I tried winning her a prize, but I couldn't. so the guy running the game kicked the table to help me out. I guess he thought I was struggling or something. I could've done it myself though…" Troy trailed off and the guys all laughed. Ryan began suspected Troy's curious smile..

"Alright Troy, spill." Ryan simply demanded.

"What?" Troy cleared his throat.

"C'mon, Sharpay Evans is my sister. She teaches me how to read people's faces."

"Oh… okay Ryan, and your point?" Troy asked.

"Well, Sharpay taught me how to read people's faces to see if they were intimidated by our acting and all that… wait I'm getting off subject. Anyways! Your smile that keeps finding its way onto your face says 'something phenomenal happened that day' every time we mention Gabby" Ryan said leaning forward out of his chair a bit.

"Wow, you seriously spend too much time with Sharpay." Troy said, and Jason and Zeke just nodded in agreement.

Brad was examining what Ryan had been talking about. He carefully watched Troy, and nodded to Ryan signaling that he understood what he was talking about. Ryan smiled, thankful that someone else agreed with him. Zeke didn't feel like watching them argue over this, so he got up to wash the dishes and clean up the kitchen. Jason caught his drift and decided to help. Brad saw the two get up and felt that he should help clean as well since he was cooking too.

"I know what you're talking about Ryan. Haha, just say it already Troy." Brad said as he got up to help clean.

"What?" Troy asked but Brad didn't answer.

"You two kissed," Ryan said as he smiled as he got up to hand the rest of the guys the dirty dishes on the table.

_Am I really making it that obvious? _Troy asked himself. "I'ma just go shower before you guys pound me."

The guys all laughed and finished cleaning.

* * *

Chad finally picked out a striped dress shirt and jeans to wear. By the time he finished getting ready, he realized he had about 45 minutes left before he had to pick up Taylor from Gabriella's house so he left to go to the store to get some things. After about 20 minutes in the store, Chad left with a brown paper bag in hand and a rose in the other. He arrived at Gabriella's house 5 minutes early and walked up to the door with the rose.

"Hey Gabby!" He greeted her as she opened the door. "Taylor here?"

"Hey Chad, you look nice. Come in, I'll get her" She said, letting Chad in then running up the stairs to go get Taylor.

"Hey Tay, Chad is here" she smiled at her friend as Taylor beamed a smile at the name.

"Hey Chad!" Taylor grinned as Chad stood up from the couch.

"Hey," he said handing her the rose.

"Thanks."

"So shall we get going?"

"Yeah, let's."

"Alright. Later Gabby."

"Bye Gabby!"

"Bye you two. Oh wait… Here take the spare key in case Tay!" Gabriella said throwing her a set of house keys.

"Okay, thanks Gabby!"

With that said, they left.

* * *

Troy already got out of the shower and came downstairs to find none of the guys in the house. So he went out back to see them playing a game of 2 on 2. Jason and Brad vs. Zeke and Ryan. Troy just grabbed a lawn chair and sat down, drinking water and watched the game. He was surprised to see how well Ryan played, and how good his cousin was. They were both better than he ever expected them to be, they both looked like they were on the basketball team like Zeke, Chad, Jason and himself.

* * *

Chad pulled into a parking lot and turned to Taylor.

"Hungry?" He asked

"Starved." She admitted.

"Good. Me too." Of course he was hungry, he was always hungry. They walked into the restaurant and ordered

"Oh, can we get this to-go?" Chad added.

After they got their food and drinks, they left.

"Why did we get it to-go?" Taylor asked confused.

"Don't worry about it." He said while he was driving. "Just enjoy the ride" he smiled

"Okay, fine."

* * *

Once the guys finally finished their game, they sat down by Troy to rest.

"Hey, you guys played good." Troy complemented. The guys were out of breath to respond and Troy just laughed.

"Zeke, Jason, remember Mikko?" Troy asked

"Mikko?" Zeke and Jason said in unison with a confused face.

"Yeah. Remember, Kevin Mikko."

"Cali Kevin?" Jason asked, Troy nodded.

"Oh yeah! He moved to California back in the day, what about him?" Zeke asked.

"Well, he moved back! He wants to hang out today."

"No way!" Jason said. "Man, the old gang!"

"Why didn't you tell us when Chad was here?" Zeke said.

"Oh, well we're not gonna tell him until school. We just felt like surprising for fun, besides he was amped about his date with Taylor."

"I see. That's cool" Zeke smiled.

"Who's Kevin? Or Mikko? Or whatever?" Ryan asked.

"He used to hang out with us way back, I don't think you and Sharpay lived here yet. He's pretty cool though, you'll meet him." Jason said.

"Isn't he the guy I met when we were younger?" Brad asked. "That one time, when I came to visit for your Mom's birthday?"

"Hmm, maybe, I don't really remember." Troy said.

"So what time is he coming?" Zeke asked

"I'm not sure, he said he'd call, maybe I'll just call him in a little."

"Great, well I think we should all shower then." Ryan suggested.

"Yeah, we all smell."

"Okay, I'll call him while you guys shower." Troy called Kevin, and he said he'd meet them in an hour at Troy's house. The guys all finished showering and just chilled until Kevin arrived.

* * *

Okayy, sorry to end it here, but like i've been saying.. MY GRADES! LOL. but the good news is, is that i HAVE been bringing them up, soo hopefully i'll get my chapters up faster.. i DO have some pre-typed pages, just not on this computer, they're on the other one with no internet... so if i get a chance to go online tomorrow, i'll transfer those files onto this one. LOL.

By the way, Troy still isn't done telling the guys. Haha..

aiight, GO REVIEW!


	18. How's Cali?

Sorry for another long wait but heres chapter 18! I didn't really proof read this soo yeahhh, forgive my mistakes or anything that doesn't make sense..

* * *

"Guys, what do you want to do today?" Sharpay asked.

"Well, we already went to the mall yesterday." Keslie thought.

"You guys just want to rent movies and hang out here?" Gabriella asked. "I don't feel like getting ready for anything." She said when she was actually thinking _Actually, I just feel like staying in, so I can think…_ of course about Troy.

"Sounds good to me." Kelsie said

"Yeah, my pjs are comfortable." Sharpay said. (they all went to Taylor's house in the pajama's by the way LOL)

"Hey we should invite Camille!" Gabriella thought "Since she's kinda new."

"Yeah, she seemed really nice, but shy. Kinda reminds me of when you moved here Gabby" Kelsie told her.

"Haha, right. Sharpay do you have her number?" Gabriella asked.

"Nope." Sharpay said. "No worries, I'll call Ryan and ask for it." She said pulling her phone to her ear to call Ryan. After a few minutes, she got Camille's number and called her.

"Hey Camille!" All three girls said since they had the phone on speaker.

"Hi, uhm, who's this?"

"Oh, hah, sorry, It's Sharpay, Gabriella, and Kelsie. Remember us from Friday night at the movies?"

"Oh yeah! Hey.." Camille said nervously

"Yeah well, we asked Ryan for your number and just wanted to know if you'd like to join us for a girls day in at my house" Gabriella said.

"Gabriella right?" She asked laughing a little

"Yep." Gabriella responded "You can call me Gabby thought!"

"Haha, okay, Gabby. Uhm, I'd love to join you guys. What time should I be over?"

"Well, we're gonna head over to the movie store to rent movies in a few minutes. So you can meet us there!" Sharpay told her.

"Yeah, and wear your pajamas because we are. We want you to be comfy!" Kelsie said happily.

Camille laughed. "Okay, I'll see you guys at the movie store in a few."

"Great, we're on our way there right now" Gabriella said grabbing her keys.

"Great. Bye girls!"

"Bye!" The three yelled to the phone and hung up, then walked out the door.

* * *

Kevin arrived finally. He was nervous as he reached Troy's porch. He hadn't seen these people years, and he was gonna see them for the first time since then today. He was dressed similar to how Brad was she he arrived. But he had hazel eyes, and longish(like Troy's) dark brown hair with wavy ends. He was wearing a dress shirt that was grey, and a printed-tee under it that said "California, Where The Sun Shines.", torn jeans, a grey beanie(the ones that look like hats with the little shade things.. LOL) and some sandals. He took a deep breath and rang the doorbell.

"I got it!" Troy said as he got up from the couch and opened the door.

"Hey Troy!" His voice was a little deeper than Troy's.

"Hey Kevin!" Troy exclaimed and let him in.

"The guys are over here." He said leading them into the living room. "hey guys guess who's here!"

"WHOA!" Zeke said

"Haha, freakin Zeke." Jason said laughing. "Hey man"

"Hey guys!" He said hugging them. "Man, you all look different"

"WE look different?" Zeke said excited. "Look at you! Haha, I almost didn't recognize you for a sec."

"Oh, Brad, this is Ryan Evans, he goes to East with us, and that's my cousin Brad, he's gonna be starting at East on Tuesday like you." Troy introduced them.

"Nice to meet guys. Hey didn't I meet you before?" Kevin asked Brad

"Yeah, I think so, but we were kinda young." Brad said shaking his hand

"Haha, oh well."

"So how was Cali?" Jason asked

"Meet any famous people!" Ryan asked.

"Haha, Ryan is into acting and stuff…" The guys explained.

"Haha, it's nice. The beaches are awesome. Nope, I didn't get a chance to meet anyone famous." Kevin told them

"How's the girls over there?" Brad asked jokingly.

"B-E-A-UTIFUL." Kevin laughed. "But the girl I liked wasn't from there."

"Aww, Kevin's in love" Zeke joked.

"Not really, more like major crushing" He laughed.

"So what happened with her then?" Jason asked.

"I dunno, I didn't see her around for a while after thesecondquarterstarted because my classes changed, and since there's so many kids at that school, it's hard to find people…" he said. "Anyways, how have you guys been?"

"Everything's been good. We were all planning out Valentine's Day plans actually." Jason said.

"Ahh I see, trying to impress the girls.." Kevin said.

"Haha, yeah." Zeke said. "So what do you fellas wanna do today?"

"How about we take Kevin and Brad around town?" Ryan suggested. "That way, we can show Kevin around since he hasn't been here for a while, and I bet Brad doesn't know the East side of Albeuquergue too well. Annnnnd we'll still be able to shop for last minute things for the girls for Valentine's." Ryan explained.

"He's got a point, I _don't _know this part of town so well." Brad said.

"Yep, and I haven't been around here in so long, it looks somewhat unfamiliar, except for all the old stuff." Kevin said.

"Alright, sounds like a good plan to me, I still have finish looking for something to get Kels." Jason added.

"I'm in." Zeke simply said.

"Well, I guess I don't have much to say, but the majority rules. Haha." Troy laughed. The guys got ready to go and left.

* * *

Sorry it's shorter than my usual chapters guys, but the good news is that i pulled up my grades! KINDA. HAHA. but they're still not good... soo ima try and stay focused more.. but the good news is that tomorrow is our last day of school, then it's spring break! sooo i'll have the chance to write more! LOL. Sooo you guys know what to do now.. REVIEW! 


	19. The kids

Sorry guys! i was gonna update yesterday, but the site isn't letting me upload any new docs.. so i just deleted something i had in the last doc i had uploaded with some ideas for later in the story..soo yeahh, i'm not sure when the next update will be after this.. soo i just made it long. HAHA

Thanks for the suggestions guys! But don't worry about it, i've got it all planned out already. So, NO, neither Brad nor Kevin will like Gabriella. LOL. Stop jumping to conclusions. Speaking of conclusions, should i just make a sequel once they get to school? or just keep adding to this? haha. Hmm, someone asked how you pernounce Kevin-Mikko (by the way, i'm making the guys call him Kevin for now, they'll start calling him Mikko once they get to know each other more.) Uhh, you know in pocohontas? the racoon? Yeahh! thats how you pernounce Mikko. LOL. It's my friends name, soo i felt like using it, but then i liked the name kevin too.. soo i just smooshed it together. Brad isn't BAD you guys. LOL. Hmm, what else did you guys ask.. OH. NO, Gabriella ISN'T the one who Kevin liked either. Soo anyways, here's the Chapter.**

* * *

**

"Hey Camille!" Gabriella shouted across the parking lot as she saw Camille getting out of her car. She and the other girls had just arrived to the small shopping center where the video store was located and were making their way to the store when Gabriella saw Camille.

"Hey Gabriella!" Camille yelled back, she took a wild guess at who she was yelling back to as she saw the group of girls walking towards her. _I hope that's Gabriella yelling… I'm so bad with names… _Camille thought to herself.

"Hey Sharpay! Kelsie!" Camille said once the girls reached her. "I did get all your names right? Haha, I'm so sorry, I'm not so great with names at first."

"No don't worry about it, you got em all right! But you can call me Kels if you like, or Kelsie, or… you can make up a new nickname, I don't really mind, new nicknames are always fun" Kelsie babbled.

"Haha, yeah, same goes for me, but most people just call me Sharpay… no ones really ever come up with a nickname for me before… except the Ice Queen.."

"Yeah, but that's not relevant anymore.." Gabriella stated. "So, we'll have to come up with a new one haha. Anyways, if you like you can call me Gabby."

"Uhm okay… you guys can call me Camille. I've never had a nickname before. Except for what my brother calls me."

"Haha, well, what's your brother call you?" Kelsie asked, opening the door for the girls.

" Cam. Or sometimes he calls me Cam-Cam and Cammy" She said.

"I like Cammy." Sharpay said. "It's cute"

"Yeah" Gabriella and Kelsie said in unison.

"Haha, okay, I guess you guys can call me that. I respond to basically any of those." Camille smiled.

"So, what do you guys want to watch?" Gabriella asked.

"OH! Let's rent RENT!" Kelsie said excited.

"Haha, mmkay." Sharpay said grabbing the DVD off the shelf.

"How about Just Friends?" Camille suggested, trying to get over her shyness.

"Oh! Yeah! I wanted to watch that when it came out in theatres, but I was kinda always busy with homework and studying" Gabriella blushed.

"Figures" Sharpay said. "Haha just kidding Gabby!"

"Haha very funny. Hmm you choose the last one Sharpay. There's a special, rent two rent one free." Gabriella

"Alright, how about Fantastic 4? The guy in here is super hot!" Sharpay suggested. All the girls laughed and agreed, then they went to go pay at the register.

**

* * *

**

Chad finally pulled up into a parking lot. Taylor realized they arrived at huge park. And they got out of the car. The park was pretty huge, there was a lake in the middle, with a sidewalk all around for people to walk. There were benches and tables placed randomly along the side, and some boulders to sit on instead of benches. Chad led her over to boulder what was big enough for two, sat down, and pulled out their food.

finally pulled up into a parking lot. realized they arrived at huge park.And they got out of the car.The park was pretty huge, there was a lake in the middle, with a sidewalk all around for people to walk.There were benches and tables placed randomly along the side, and some boulders to sit on instead of benches. led her over to boulder what was big enough for two, sat down, and pulled out their food. 

"I haven't been here in so long." Taylor finally said, taking a seat on the boulder.

"Yeah, same here, but I wanted to take you…" Chad smirked.

"Well, thank you." She smiled.

"Don't say thank you just yet. Haha, this date isn't over."

"Haha, fine...It better not be anyways"

"Good, because it isn't" Chad said thinking about his plans for after they finished eating and he checked his watch."

After they finished eating and talking for a little bit, Chad checked his watch again and pulled himself off the boulder. Then he held out his had to Taylor to help her get up.

"Ready?" He asked

"For….?"

"Just wait right here!" Chad said, and ran away to his car.

"What the heck?" Taylor said as she saw Chad run off. She saw him jump into his car. "He better not be leaving me!" Taylor said. She was talking to herself, no one else was around.

* * *

After Gabriella, Sharpay, Kelsie and Camille finished paying at the register, they headed out to their cars.

"So I'll just follow you guys to your house?" Camille asked.

"Uhm yeah." Gabriella said. "Do you want someone to ride with you just in case?"

"Sure" She smiled.

"I'll go!" Sharpay insisted

"Okay, we'll see you guys in a few."

Gabriella and Kelsie got into Gabriella's car, while Sharpay and Camille in Camille's.

"So how long have you known my brother?" Sharpay asked

"Ever since I moved here from New York." She said and she pulled out of the parking lot. "He's a really nice guy, he's basically the only person I talk to at school other than my brother."

"Oh, I see. How come I've never seen you at lunch with him? We all hang out together, and I've never seen you…"

"Oh, that's because my brother and I had to go up to counseling everyday during lunch and free period to meet with a tutor because we were behind a bit when we transferred here. We start our normal home rooms and everything on Tuesday." She said driving.

"That's cool. You should totally hang out with us then!"

"Yeah, definitely. All you guys are so nice."

"Haha, thanks, but you're soo sweet too! I don't think I've ever seen Ryan so happy before."

"Thanks. Haha, yeah, my brother always says I've been so happy lately too."

"Hmm, so are you and your brother really close? You seem to mention him a lot, not that there's anything wrong with that, I mean I love my brother to death haha."

"Yeah, we are. We're twins like you and Ryan!"

"Really! Wow. I don't think I've ever seen your brother around either."

"Hm, well, I'll introduce him to you guys Tuesday when we hang out then! He doesn't really talk to other people as much either." She said as they pulled into Gabriella's driveway. "Hey, I live like 2 blocks from here!"

"Haha, no way?"

"Yeah, I do.." Camille said getting out of the car.

"Wow, that's crazy."

"What's crazy?" Gabriella asked as she was getting out of her car and overheard the two.

"Camille lives two blocks from here!" Sharpay said.

"How cool!" Kelsie said shutting the passenger door.

"Weee, we're neighbors! I mean kinda…" Gabriella laughed.

The four girls went into the house and started Fantastic 4 because Sharpay wanted to see the hot guy in it.

**

* * *

**

The guys were walking around downtown talking and laughing as they walked around. Jason bought a few more small gifts for Kelsie, and same for Troy but for Gabriella instead, Zeke for Sharpay, and Ryan for Camille. Brad and Kevin just bought some things for themselves.

"Man, everything is so different now" Kevin said.

"Haha, but I bet it's still better in California" Troy laughed

"Of course man, haha you know it." Kevin said.

"Man, how come you guys get all the better stores over here?" Brad said jokingly. "We always just drove far to go shopping."

"Yeah well, you never thought of East Albuquerque did you now." Zeke laughed.

"Nope, not really. None of us never really wanted to start anything with our rivals, so we just stayed away from what we called ' East Territory'" They all laughed. They spent the rest of the day downtown.

**

* * *

**

The girls were laughing, having a blast. After the finished the movies they rented and finished eating, Camille left, and the other girls fell asleep on the couches where they were with their blankets already.

_**

* * *

** _

Back to Taylor and Chad

Chad was still sitting in his car, and Taylor was still sitting on the boulder, looking out over the large lake thinking about things. Chad on the other hand was on his phone…

"Hi this is Chad Danforth, I called earlier today.. yes.. yep. Seven?... Oh, no, that's fine. Okay. Bye."

After he hung up he grabbed the paper bag that he was carrying earlier, got out of the car, and started back to Taylor. Once he got to Taylor he stood behind her, looking at the lake like she was.

"So whatca thinking about?" he asked.

"Hmm, just everything in general."

"Well then you wouldn't mind if I interrupted your train of thought then would you?" he said, taking a seat next to her.

"Nope, not at all" she smiled. "So why'd you leave me for a while?"

"That's none of your business…" he said smiling. Then he stood up reaching out his hand toward her. "Haha, I'm kidding. Com with me and you'll see."

Taylor thought about it.. she didn't know what to expect and took his hand. They ended up walking around the trail that made it's way around the entire lake. After walking for about 5 minutes... they reached a park. Chad spotted a young woman, and immediately let go of Taylor's hand and ran to her. Taylor became furious after she saw that Chad had run to another girl.

"What the..?" She said to herself, then turned to the lake, and started thinking that going on the date was a bad idea. After about 2 minutes of thinking to herself, Chad came to sight, standing in front of her. "Why did you run to another girl! I thought this was a date Chad?" She said angrily.

Chad expected her to react like that. "What? No, no Taylor, it is a date.. She's.."

"Don't make up excuses!" Taylor slightly yelled without even knowing it.

" Taylor, let me explain!" He pleaded

"Fine." She folded her arms and prepared herself to listen.

"That girl I ran to is the student teacher of my old 5th grade teacher. I ran into my old teacher the day I bought those roses for you, and she asked if I wanted to help her out. And I said yes."

"What? What do you mean? What are you helping with?"

"Well, see, my old teacher stopped teaching older kids after the year she taught Troy and I. But no worries it wasn't because of him and me." He chuckled. "She switched over to teaching 1st and 2nd grade kids who have single parents who are struggling raising them, or kids who have no actual parents and are living with distant relatives, and things like that" he said quietly.

"Oh, Chad.. I'm sorry for assuming." She said with guilt in her voice.

"No, it's fine." He said smiling. "But anyway, she takes a group of kids every other weekend out here so they could have fun every now and then."

"So what's this got to do with you helping?"

"Well, I volunteered to help her, and I wanted you to come because you're always so into your school work. You need to have fun every now and then like them too you know?" He said.

"I'm not _always_ into my school work." She argued.

"Yes, huh."

"Nu uh."

"Yes you do Taylor McKessie"

"No, I absolutely don't Chad Danforth" Just then a little girl with pigtails walked up and pulled on Chad's shirt to get his attention. She looked about 7 years old. Chad smiled and bent down to her.

"Hey sweetie." He smiled at her "something wrong?"

"No Mr. Chad. I just wanted to know when we were gonna play?" she asked.

"Haha, in a second. Promise." He winked at her, making her giggle, then Chad picked her up and started tickling her. Taylor was surprised at how good Chad was with the little girl. "See, I told you a second." He laughed putting her down

"Hehehe. You're funny Mr. Chad."

"You can call me Chad like I told you earlier Vicky"

"Okay." Vicky said beaming her cute little smile. Taylor was looking down and Chad and Vicky thinking how sweet Chad is. Then Chad looked up at Taylor, and whispered something to Vicky.

"Go back to where I told you to stay, I'll be over in a little bit okay?" He told Vicky. Vicky nodded and skipped away to where Chad told her to.

"That was cute." Taylor said. "I didn't know you had a way with kids.."

"Yeah, well, I like helping kids… Her mom works all the time, so she likes coming here with Mrs. Siggs. And today, you're going to help me okie dokes?"

"Haha, but you seemed to handle Vicky fine." She said confused.

"Yeah, well it's not just Vicky we're playing with today." He motioned Taylor to turn around. "I've got a group of seven because they were short volunteers." Chad smiled.

"Well then, let's make these kids happy" Taylor smiled, and Chad kissed her cheek. He led Taylor over to the group of kids.

"Hi Chaaaad!" The group yelled.

"Hey munchkins, I'd like to introduce you to my lovely girlfriend, Taylor"

"Hi Taylor!" They greeted, then a little boy stepped forward.

"I'm Martin!" He smiled, his two front teeth were missing. "Are you playing with us too like Chad?"

"Hi Martin. Yep, I'm gonna be here to play with you guys." Then all the little kids cheered.

"Uhm.." A little boy with glasses said quietly.

"Something wrong Junior?" Chad asked.

"What am I supposed to do with this? You said not open it because its top secret" Junior replied.

"Yeah is it gonna blow up or something?" A girl named Mary asked.

"Why would it blow up?" Erika asked, who was another little girl in the group.

"Haha stop it guys. It's not going to blow up or anything. It's just a surprise" He said taking the bag from Junior.

"Hey I thought you said there were seven…" Taylor whispered.

Chad began to panic. "What!" he gasped taking a piece of paper out that had a list of all the kids he was supposed to be watching over. "uhhm, okay you guys, I'm gonna call your names, when I call your names, just sit down where you are and say 'here' okay? Vicky? Junior? Martin? Mary? Erika?" All of them said here and replied back to Chad. "Andy? James?" he continued, there were no responses. "Andy! James!" He called once more.

Two boys were missing from the group. The other five were just sitting on the sidewalk looking at Chad, who was in panic mode, and Taylor, who was trying to calm him down..

"Breathe Chad. I bet they're fine."

" Taylor, two kids are missing…" He gasped. She didn't know what to say. So she turned to Vicky, who was sitting closest to her.

"Hey honey, do you know where James and Andy went?"

"Um, I don't remember Taylor…Ms. Taylor?" she questioned herself.

"It's fine, you all can call me Taylor. Do any of you know where James and Andy went?"

"I saw them walk that way." Erika spoke up, pointing to the playground

"Thank you Erika. Now I want all of you to just stay where you are.. See Chad they were probably too anxious to play, and went to the park."

"You're right, lets go check though." He said turning back to the kids. "Okay you guys, we're gonna go look for James and Andy, I don't want any of you running off or else you wont get to see the surprise I brought you." The kids all nodded, as Chad motioned them to walk in front of him and Taylor so that they could keep an eye on them.

The got to the playground, and didn't find the boys.

"I heard James say he had to potty." Junior said. "Maybe they went there?"

"Hmm, okay we'll check." Taylor patted his back.

They went to the restroom, Chad went in to check if they were there. He had no luck. Taylor went into the girls room in case the boys got them mixed up. But there was no luck there either.

"Do any of you have to use the bathroom since we're here?" Chad asked

"Me!" Vicky said, slightly dancing. So Taylor took her hand and led her to the girls room, so she could make sure she didn't run away. After they finished up, Chad suggested they go to Mrs. Siggs.

* * *

buwahaha. I think i left you guys with a grip of cliffhangers... That's how i write. LOL. Don't worry, Troy will tell the guys what happened when Chad gets home. I'm gonna jump back to the girl scene when Taylor gets home too.. soo don't worry guys. LOL So, whats in the bag for the kids.. 


	20. Gray Twins

Alright guys, here's a quick update of the next chapter..i'm splitting it into two parts, maybe three, i dunno. Anywho. I wanted to apologize to all of you. I shouldn't have blown up like that..honestly, that's not like me. Normally i wouldn't even care about reviews like that. And i know you guys have the right to say you hate my story and all..so go ahead if you want. I don't care. But let me just explain the situation that i was in that made me react like that, and trust me, ireactedlike that to everyone yesterday. See.. Yesterday, i found out that three of my close friends were in a car accident;they were hit by a drunk driver.Two of them didn't make it, and the other was severely injured. And it sucks because this happened a few days ago,now the funeral is tomorrow, and no one told me that it happened till yesterday, even though we all practically grew up together! Err. I just over reacted and was really angry.. soo i'm really sorry. A lot of you guys do make a good point in your reviews. annd yeahh like i said, i've already been pressured with school, and now _this... _i might update tomorrow, i dunno, but i will write when i can tomorrow...

* * *

Chad, Taylor, and the group of kids walked over to Mrs. Siggs and her group to confront her about the two missing kids. Vicky was singing a little song and skipping as she held onto Chad's hand. 

"Chad, cheer up!" She smiled. Chad looked down at her, and smiled.

"Thanks Vicky, but it's kinda hard right now."

"I think she has a little crush on you." Taylor nudged him with her elbow trying to lighten up the mood.

"Well, that's too bad because I've got you." He grinned.

They finally got to Mrs. Siggs. She was at the playground watching over the kids as they played.

"Um, Mrs. Siggs.." Chad started.

"Oh, Chad, why are you guys over here, I thought you were taking your group over by the lake? Are there any problems?" Mrs. Siggs asked, pushing her glasses higher on her nose.

"Yeah, we do have a problem." He admitted with his head down.

"What is it?" She asked waiting for him to answer.

"Well.." he couldn't seem to find the words.

"Um, you see, Mrs. Siggs, we were arguing about something, and we weren't keeping a close eye on the kids, and somehow we're missing two; James and Andy. We've already checked around the places where they could've run off to. Even the bathroom, since one of the kids heard them say they had to go." Taylor explained.

"I'm really sorry Mrs. Siggs." Chad confessed.

"Andy and James. The twins?"

"Um, I don't remember what they looked like, I didn't really go over their names until we found out they were missing." Chad realized.

"Yep Mrs. Siggs, they're the twins." Erika told her.

"Ahh yes, the Gray twins.. James Gray and Andy Gray. I forgot to tell you about those two. I had Rose, the T.A., retrieve them from your group. Their mother got off work early today and wanted to take them out herself. I'm really sorry, I thought Rose told you. Now, who are you?" Mrs. Siggs asked, reffering to Taylor.

"Oh thank goodness" Chad sighed in relief. "Oh I'm sorry Mrs. Siggs, I forgot to introduce you. Remember how I called asking if I could have someone help me? Well, this is my girlfriend, Taylor McKessie."

"Lovely meeting you Miss McKessie, and thank you for your concern in helping look for the twins."

"Oh, it's no problem, you can call me Taylor if you like."

"Wonderful then Taylor," She smiled, "well then, I think i should get back to my group before they start pouring sand down each other's pants like last time. I'll see all of you in a bit." With that said, she ran over to two young boys who were about grab a fist full of sand.

* * *

Okay, sorry, but i have to finish up my speech they asked me to do for tomorrow...Once again. IM SOOOO SORRY!

_R.I.P_ _This one's dedicated to you guys. "Loved, Blessed, We're one of a kind" Never gonna forget that._

Drunk drivers suck.


	21. No Bus

Hey guys here's Ch. 21. Sorry for such the long wait on the update... it's just been reallyhard. And i know you guys are waiting for all that drama, and it's coming. you guys just need to be patient. enjoy!

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"So can we play now? We've been waiting forever Chad!" Junior groaned.

"Yeah, yeah, we can go play now Junior" Chad played with the boy's messy hair. "C'mon, let's go over to those tables over there" He said pointing to the picnic tables over by the sidewalk next to the lake where they were standing before.

"Why are we going there? Are we gonna eat?" Martin asked rubbing his stomach.

"No, why, are you hungry?" Chad asked

"No, I ate 6 cookies! I'm a pig!" He grinned. Everyone laughed with Martin as they headed over to the tables.

"So what are we doing?" Taylor whispered to Chad.

"Hmm, something that'll make you feel like a kid again," He said showing her the bag, "You're always so into your studies, you never have any fun. So I thought that I'd get something fun for all of us to do" He smiled.

"We already talked about this, I'm not always into my school work...I'm just focused. And besides, I do too have fun" She argued.

"Right... Focused." He mocked as they reached the table. "Okay, guys roll up your sleeves." He demanded as he started to roll his own up. Taylor gave him a confused look and did as he asked. After she and Chad finished their own, they helped all the kids roll their own up because theirs kept falling back down.

"Okay, now go get one or two rocks. But not ones that are too heavy or anything!" Chad told them, as they scattered to the dirt path a few yards away then came back. "Good." He pulled out some paper and gave a piece to each of the kids. "We're finger painting" He told them.

"YAY!" They all cheered.

"You guys can paint whatever you want. You can paint something for your parents, a friend, yourself, Mrs. Siggs, or whatever. And you guys can paint as many pictures as you want too, I've got loads of paper." He told them pulling out different colored paints.

They all sat down and started painting. Each of the kids wanted to paint something for their parents. Junior painted a plane for his dad, who happened to work at the airport because he loved planes. Mary painted a portrait of her family, with her father looking down on her and her mother from a cloud with angel wings. Vicky painted a picture of her and her mom hugging. Taylor, who was sitting next to her, looked at it and was impressed by her skills. She was only in the first grade, but she had a hidden talent.

"That's really good Vicky."

"Thanks." She smiled. "I like to draw stuff."

"Oh, really, like what?" Taylor asked.

"I don't know, whatever I come up with in my head." She shrugged.

"Hm, well, you're a very talented young artist." Taylor complemented her. Chad was on the other end of the table sitting with the two boys, Martin, and Junior. The three were becoming competitive with each other comparing their finger painting skills.

"Mine's better!" Martin practically yelled. Showing his picture of his parents with him between the two, smiling. This is how he wanted to see his parents, but he never met his father, because he left when he was born for another woman.

"No mine!" Junior said, showing him and his dad sitting in a plane. Chad shook his head in disagreement.

"Mine is way better than both of yours!" He said showing the two boys his picture.

"What is it?" The two boys said in unison.

"What? You guys can't see it?" Chad said shocked

"No.. what's that?" Junior asked pointing to a big area of black and brown paint.

"That's my hair! It's a picture of me and Taylor you guys!" the two little boys burst into laughter.

"Oh, I see Taylor! She looks pretty, nice job." Martin said.

"Yeah..." Junior agreed.

"Thank you." He said.

"But I still don't see you. I think you gave yourself too much hair." Junior added.

"Yeah, when people get old, they always try to give themselves more hair. Like my grandpa.. He wears a wig!" Martin said laughing.

"Hey! I don't wear a wig!" He told them. Everyone was listening to their little argument and laughing by now. Taylor walked over behind Chad and hugged him.

"It's okay Chad, at least you finger paint better than you count." she teased then kissed his cheek. Chad gave her a playful glare. "I'm kidding!" She laughed lightly slapping his shoulder.

"Not funny." He said.

"I love it. Honestly. It's the thought that counts more than the quality." She hugged and kissed him again.

"Okay."

Once all five of the kids finished making a few more paintings, they cleaned up. After cleaning, Chad put all the paint back into the bag, and took out small bags of candy that he bought at the store as well, and gave each of the kids a bag. Since he had two extra, he left it in the brown bag to make sure Mrs. Siggs gave it to the twins when she saw them on Tuesday. They made their way back to the playground since it was almost time for the bus to come and pick up the kids to bring them home. When they reached Mrs. Siggs, the noticed that she was on her cell phone yelling at the person on the other line. They waited for her to finish and hang up before they fully approached her.

"Hey Mrs. Siggs, uhm, here's the finger paint that I bought for the kids today. There's still a lot more, so I thought I'd leave it with you for next time or something. There's also two bags of candy that were supposed to be for the twins." Chad spoke.

"Why thank you Chad. That's very thoughtful." She smiled.

"No problem."

"Well, speaking of problems, there's one. The bus company says that we weren't scheduled for a bus ride home. They said we only booked a ride to just come here." Mrs. Siggs sighed.

"Oh, wow. That is a big problem." Taylor said.

"How are we going to get home?" Erika asked grasping her paintings as the wind blew.

"I don't know sweetie. We're still trying to figure that out, but we better soon before the wind picks up more..." Mrs. Siggs said.

"I have an idea!" Chad almost shouted in Taylor's ear since he was standing next to her. Mrs. Siggs was startled by his action. "Well, most of the volunteers are drivers, and those who aren't their parents pick them up or something. I think we should give our groups that we had rides home if that was possible for each of us to do. I mean I have my car, and you could call Mr. Siggs or something.." Then he was cut of by Mrs. Siggs.

"What a wonderful idea Chad!" She exclaimed. "Looks like I taught you well..." She joked.

"So, should we ask all the other volunteers if its okay with them?" Taylor asked.

"Yes, that would be important now wouldn't it." Mrs. Siggs laughed.

Mrs. Siggs called all the groups together and explained the situation. All the volunteers agreed to take their groups home. One of the other volunteers took Mary and Erika because they were neighbors with the two girls. So Chad got the adresses of the three kids left so that he could drop them off, and picked up their bags that their parents packed because sometimes they would get messy, so Mrs. Siggs started to ask the parents to pack extra clothes and snacks just in case. After he put the bags in the trunk, Taylor made sure that Vicky, Martin, and Junior were buckled in.

"Alright you three. Time to bring you three home." Chad said as he pulled out of the parking lot. "First stop Vicky's house!" Vicky giggled as Chad messed around. Once they arrived, Taylor jumped out to go get her things out of the trunk. Before Vicky jumped out, she handed Chad a picture she painted.

"Here you go Chad!" She smiled.

"What's this?" He turned around in his seat.

"A picture of Taylor! Duh.." She giggled again. "I made it for you since she's your girlfriend silly." Chad looked at it, and smiled.

"Thanks Vicky! I love it. You're a really good artist, did you know that?"

"Yep, Taylor told me. Bye Chad!"

"Bye, see you next time!"

Taylor walked her to the front door. Vicky gave her a painting as well, but explained that it was Chad. Once her mother answered the door Taylor explained what happened with the bus, and her mother thanked her. With that, they left and headed towards Junior's house. Chad got out this time to bring him to the door. After that they made their way to Martin's house. Chad noticed the front door open and pulled up. On the other side of the street instead of in front of the house just to be on the safe side.

"Here, I'll go check it out." Taylor insisted, just in case if Chad had to drive off quick if they needed. Chad nodded

"Be careful."

"I'll be right back sweetie." Taylor said as she turned around to Martin who looked confused.

Taylor walked up to Martin's door. She heard two voices and she neared, each getting louder and louder as she became closer to the open door. She heard glass smashing against something and shattering. Taylor was shaken at what happening. When she reached the door, she saw a woman, who she assumed was Martin's mother. Martin's mother, Grace, noticed Taylor, and walked over to her at the door.

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Review if you want. I might update again later today..


	22. Protecting Him

Hey here's Chapter 22. I'm not sure if I can update tomorrow, but'll try...Oh, annd I have been trying to add more drama to this, as well as watch out for my HAHAs..Soo yeahh. Reaaaaad.

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"Hi, I'm Taylor McKessie. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to.." Taylor started but was cut off by Martin's mother. 

"Oh I'm Grace, no, I'm sorry, we're causing all this racket... My boyfriend, he just has a temper." she said taking a look behind her, checking if her boyfriend had seen her talking to Taylor. That's when Taylor noticed she had scratches on her arms, and a few bruises starting to form on her face. "So what is it that you need Hun?" She asked, her voice still shakey.

"Oh, uhm, well, I was one of Martin's teacher's volunteers today. And the bus couldn't take them home, so my boyfriend and I took some of them home ourselves. We just wanted to make sure it was safe for him to come in because we saw the door open..." She was explaining but was cut off by Grace again at the sound of stomping.

"Oh my, he's coming."

"You should call help..." Taylor insisted quickly.

"No, I can't. I already have before.."

"But"

"Listen, can Martin stay with you tonight?" Grace asked quickly. "I know Mrs. Siggs only lets people that she truly trusts help her out with the kids. So that means I trust you with my son, I don't want my boyfriend hurting him.." She blurted.

"I'm staying at a friend's house this weekend.."

"Please." She begged. Taylor hessitated at first.

"Okay."

"Thank you soo much, Taylor" Grace thanked her and pulled her into a quick hug. The stomping from upstairs stopped which made her whisper even softer in case he was listening. "Do you think you could stop by again to pick up some clothes for him around 8 later tonight? I'll leave it out here after my boyfriend leaves to go to a quick meeting he has.. You could leave your number under the mat so I can call you when it's safe." Grace told her. Taylor just nodded. Then they heard the stomping again, this time they knew he was heading towards the stairs. "you better go!" she told Taylor. And with that said, Taylor ran to Chad's car and told him to drive her to Gabriella's.

Taylor was trying to catch her breath as they drove off.

"What happened?" Chad asked.

"Where are we going?" Martin asked from the back seat.

"I'll tell you later." Taylor mouthed to Chad, and he nodded. "Uhm, you're gonna stay with me tonight Martin."

"Like a sleepover?" he asked happily.

"Yeah..." Taylor said trying to hide her emotion.

"Cool!"

"Yep, you get to spend the night with me and my friends at my friend Gabriella's house." she said cheerfully.

Once they got to Gabriella's house, they all got out and walked inside. Taylor saw all the girls watching a movie, and Taylor just told Martin to wait next to the couch. Gabriella, Sharpay, Kelsie, and Camille didn't notice Martin standing there in silence. Taylor pulled Chad into the bathroom, and turned on the vent to make sure Martin couldn't hear.

"What's going on Taylor!"

"His mom wants him to stay with me, her boyfriend is being all psychotic, and she doesn't want him to hurt Martin. I couldn't say no. Her boyfriend was smashing this everywhere, and his mom looked hurt. And.." Taylor had tears starting to form. Chad just stopped her and pulled her into a hug.

"It's okay, you did the right thing Taylor." He told her trying to calm her down.

"Thanks." She said as they broke apart.

"Ugh, I should get going... You gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, I'll call you if i need anything." She said opening the bathroom door and walked him to the front door. They said their goodbye's and kissed. Then Taylor turned to see Martin quietly watching the movie from behind the couch.

The girls were too into the movie to notice that Taylor had come home, or that Martin was even there. Taylor didn't want to interrupt them in the middle of their movie, so she tapped Martin's shoulder and held out her hand, then led him into the kitchen.

"Are you hungry yet? Or are you still full from your six cookies?" She asked putting him on the counter. Martin was one of the younger kids. He was only in kindergarten, but was in one of Mrs. Siggs' class because the other classes were full. He shook his head.

"Nope. Still full." He told her dangling his legs on the edge of the counter.

"Okay, well are you...thirsty?"

"Hmm..." He said putting a finger to his chin, "yes."

"What do you want? We have juice, milk, or water."

"Milk!"

"Chocolate milk?" Taylor said smiling. Martin nodded his head in excitement. Taylor made him the chocolate milk and put a straw inside the cup because she knew she liked to blow bubbles in her milk when she was younger. And she was right, once he got a hold of the cup he started blowing bubbles and popping them with his straw. Taylor sat in one of the high chairs that was next to him. Martin finished his milk and looked at her.

"Yummm." He said, wiping off his milk mustache. "So are they gonna be the only ones at the sleepover?"

"Uhm, yeah, I think so. They're my friends, they're really nice. You'll like them." She smiled.

"So I'm the only kid!"

"Yep."

"Wow. My very first sleepover with no family, is one with a bunch of older pretty girls!" He said happily. Taylor just laughed at what he said. They heard Gabriella, Kelsie, Sharpay, and Camille laughing.

"How come we're not watching the movie?" He turned to Taylor again.

"Because I don't think you're old enough to see that and I don't even know what movie they're watching."

"Fantastic4 duh!"

"Oh."

"I saw it at the movies with my cousin."

"Really?"

"Yep. It's almost over though, I remember that part." As if on que, they heard the girls greet goodbye to Camille outside the door.

"Uhm, stay here, I need to talk to them really quick."

"Okay." He said and got down off the counter and slipped into one of the high chairs.

Taylor walked out of the kitchen and tapped Gabriella's shoulder at the front door.

"Whoa! Since when were you back!" Gabriella turned quickly to see Taylor behind her.

"Gabby I need to talk to you..." She grabbed her best friend's hand and led her upstairs to her room.

"Uhh, Tay, what's going on? Did you and Chad break up or something?"

"What? No. Nothing like that. See, Chad took me with him to go play with kids today who only have single parents who are too busy and all that. And something came up, so we had to take our groups home. And the last boy's house, his mom and her boyfriend were fighting and he was being outrageously violent."

"Oh my gosh." Gabriella gasped

"Yeah i know, but the worst part is that his mom is getting hurt. She's already called for help, but they can't do anything about it."

"Poor little boy... How old is he?"

"He's only about 6."

"And he's in that house?"

"No, that's why I needed to talk to you. See, the front door was open when we got to his house, so I went to go check if it was safe. Then his mom saw me and explained to me what was happening, and asked if he could stay with me. I hesitated at first since I was staying at your house this weekend, but I couldn't say no. I couldn't risk him being hurt, he's just a kid."

"It's okay Tay, calm down..." Gabriella told her. Taylor took a deep breath.

"So Chad and I brought him here. Do you think he could stay?"

"Yes, of course! You know I wouldn't want a kid getting hurt like that. Besides my mom called today and said she was coming home tomorrow because her meeting was cut short, so I don't think she'll mind."

"Thanks Gabby." She hugged her.

"Anytime. So where is he?"

"In the kitchen. C'mon I think he's bored by now."

"Alright" she laughed.

Taylor and Gabriella made their way downstairs and saw Kelsie and Sharpay sitting in the living room watching cartoons with Martin between them on the couch laughing. Kelsie heard them coming down the stairs, and turned her attention to him.

"Hey guys. We found him in the kitchen and he looked bored so we asked him to watch cartoons with us." Kelsie spoke. "So who is he?"

"I already told you! My name is Martin!" He told Kelsie.

"Hah, yeah Kels, there's your answer." Taylor said as she and Gabriella took a seat on the other couch. "Martin, these are my friends Kelsie, Sharpay, and Gabriella. This is Gabriella's house though."

"Hello." he waved to each of them, "Kelsie, Sharpay, and Gabriella."

"Hey, so what do you want to do tonight Martin?" Sharpay asked.

"I don't know. What's a 6 year old supposed to do with a bunch of, uh, how old are you guys?"

"16." They all answered "Going on 17." Kelsie added.

"Oh, well, with a bunch of 16 year old girls?" The girls laughed.

"Hmm, well, we can play games since it's getting late anyways." Gabriella suggested.

"Yeah" Taylor said, taking out her cell phone to look at the time. It was 8:10. She had to go get Martin's things. "Um, I've got to go do something really quick. I'll be back in a half an hour or so."

"Where are you going?" Gabriella asked.

"Pick up his things." She whispered to Gabriella who nodded.

"Be careful." Gabriella whispered and Taylor left.

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Soo yeahh. I've decided i'm only gonna take the story up to the part where they go back to school. Then I'm gonna make a sequel. I've already got ideas for it. And YES, I'll put more drama into it. Haha. I'm also gonna be making another story at the same time, but it'll be kinda different. It'll be more based on the actual actors(Zac efron and all them), but I'm gonna use my characters I added in here as well(Brad, Camille, etc.)... I guess you can say that this one and the sequel to it will be consideredHSM2, and the third story will take place then...I dunno how to say it. Haha, But sound good? LOL Tell me if you guys would want a sequel, or think my idea of writing the other story are good, if not, i won't write em... butithink the plot i'm thinking ofis interesting because no one's done it yet... REVIEWS would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys. 


	23. What a sight

Here's Chapter 23. Hope you guys like it, leave reviews! It gives me motive.

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Chad got to Troy's house and found Troy, Brad, Jason, Ryan, and Zeke watching TV. Kevin had already left.

"Hey, how'd the date go with Tay?" Troy asked.

"Crazy."

"Really? That bad?" Jason laughed.

"Nah man. Not like that, I took her to go help me with Mrs. Siggs' students so she could have fun, and still feel like she acomplished something since it was helping the kids. We finger painted. Then I had to take some of the kids home, and one of them couldn't go because his mom was being abused and didn't want him getting hurt, so he's staying with the girls tonight."

"Lucky! Man he gets to spend the night with the girls and he's how old?" Jason joked.

"Six. Hah, anyways, how'd your date go with Gabby the other day? I never got to ask you." Chad said.

"It wasn't a date." Troy said but was cut off.

"He wouldn't tell us anything good this morning." Zeke told him.

"Yeah, so Brad and Ryan were doing some crazy thing by reading Troy's face." Jason said.

"What the heck?" Chad said with a confused look on his face.

"Sharpay taught me. Long story" Ryan said.

"Okay, fine I'll tell you guys what happened. And it wasn't a date."

"Whatever man." Chad said.

"Long story short, I couldn't win her a prize so the booth guy helped me out, we raced and she won, blah blah blah, and we took pictures in the photobooth because she never did before, and we kissed. Then I took her home, and that was it." Troy explained quickly.

"Wait. What? You guys kissed!" Chad exclaimed. "Congrats man. So you tow together yet?"

"No."

"What!" Chad yelled once more.

"You mean, you guys kissed and nothing happened?" Jason asked.

"Yep"

"And you didn't ask her to be your girlfriend?" Zeke asked.

"Nope"

"But she did kiss you back right?" Ryan asked.

"Yep."

"And yet, you still didn't ask her to be your girlfriend?" Chad asked.

"Nope."

"Slick one cousin." Brad said.

"Geez you guys, I don't want to rush into things!" Troy told them.

"Uhh, I think you've already waited long enough. Like a month already." Chad said.

"Don't worry. I was planning on asking when I take her out tomorrow."

"Good." Chad said. Then Troy's phone started to ring."

* * *

Taylor arrived at Martin's house, and parked on the opposite side of the street just as they did earlier that day. Once she put her car in parking, she opened the door and walked towards the house. All the lights were off except for the front upstairs window. Taylor wasn't sure who was there, but she saw a moving shadow and hurried to the porch. She saw Martin's bag under the bench, assuming his mother hid it there so her boyfriend wouldn't see it. She grabbed the duffel bag and noticed a note on top, grabbed it, and paced towards her car. Once she was inside her car, she opended the note and read:

_Taylor,_

_Once again, thank you so much for doing this. Don't worry, I already have your house number; Your mother is Martin's doctor... I knew that last name sounded familiar. Anywho, if you still want to leave your number just put it under the front mat. I'll check it when I can. I packed some of Martin's toys, and some extra clothes in case something comes up. I'm not sure when my boyfriend Tommy will calm down, but please don't tell anyone. He's a cop, so it's hard for people to believe me. If Martin becomes too much of a hassel then just bring him back. I'm home alone between the hours of 3-5 in the afternoons. Here's my number 657-4909. Thanks again._

_-Grace_

Taylor didn't know what to do; she wanted Grace to find help. She took out a piece of paper and wrote a quick note:

_Grace,_

_Here's my cell number since I'm at a friends house. 998-4306. My friend's mom will be back tomorrow, so Martin will be safe. And don't worry, even if he is a hassel, I won't let come back unless it's truely safe. But Grace, you have to get out of there too and get help asap._

_-Taylor_

Talor quickly folded the note, ran back to the porch and slid the note under the front door mat, then ran back to her car. After taking a minute to catch her breath and make sure no one was watching her, she drove off.

**"Hey guys, **I'm back!" Taylor said closing the door behind her.

"Hey Tay," Gabriella greeted her. "How'd it go?"

"Good actually, I didn't run into any problems."

"Great."

"Oh hey Tay!" Kelsie said walking into the downstairs hallway followed by Sharpay with Martin in hand.

"Hey" Sharpay smiled.

"Hi Taylor!" Martin said letting go of Sharpay's hand and running to Taylor to hug her waist.

"Hey Martin." She hugged him, fearing what was going to happen to him and his mom. "So what did you guys do while I was gone?"

"Oh nothing much, just got to know the guy a little more." Sharpay smiled.

"Yeah, he's a pretty cute kid." Gabriella said playing with his hair.

"Well, you're a pretty girl." He told her.

"In your dreams," She said rolling her eyes. "You know there's a girl you age a few houses down, maybe you have a better chance with her." she said sarcastically.

"Prolly." He sighed.

"Looks like Chad rubbed off on you a little too much." Taylor said.

"What?" Martin asked.

"Nothing, c'mon you, time to get you washed up and changed into your pajamas."

"Okay..." He gave in easily, and they all marched upstairs. After showing him where the bathroom was, and setting up the bath for him, the closed the door but didn't lock it just in case, and the girls sat in Gabriella's room talking.

"So what happened, I mean like why's he here?" Sharpay asked curiously.

"Yeah, I mean, kids don't just pop up at your feet Tay." Keslie added.

"Well, he was one of the kids Chad and I were helping today. And something came up so the bus didn't show to take the kids home. Chad offered to drive the group we had home... and when we got to MArtin's house last his mom asked me to take care of him because her boy friend was being abusive." She told them, but what she didn't know was that Martin was just outside of Gabriella's door and had listened to the explaination while walking in without the girls noticing.

"Uhm, you forgot to leave my shirt." He spoke up. Only Gabriella heard him and turned to his bag since she was closest to his it.

"Here you go sweetie." She said taking out his thermal shirt with race cars on it and walked over to give it to him. Then she gasped and dropped his shirt as she saw Martin. The rest of the girls turned around after hearing Gabriella gasp. "Oh my gosh." was all Gabriella could say.

"Gabby what's wr---" Taylor paused, and her jaw dropped, same with Sharpay, and Kelsie covering her mouth in shock.

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You like? LOL. Review! Oh, and I already started writing my other story, not the sequel..the other one that kinda goes with it,but I won't put it up until after i finish this one, and start the sequel.I'll try and update later today, if not, then tomorrow.


	24. Talks

Hmm yeahh, here's chapter 24. There's only a few more chapters left i think.. soo reviews would be nice(

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"Wow." Sharpay finally said breaking the silence and turning quickly.

"Huh?" Martin asked.

"Umm, your.." Keslie said with her head turned in a different direction.

"Yeah." Taylor said with her head turned the opposite way.

"Oh c'mon guys, be mature" Gabriella said, grabbing an extra dry towel and wrapping it around a nude Martin.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot..." He told them. "I usually put my shirt on first." He blushed.

"It's okay, I used to take care of my cousin when I lived close to them." Gabriella said, trying to take her mind off of what she _really_ saw from her angle. "C'mon you," She picked up his shirt that she dropped and scooted him towards the bathroom, following closely to make sure he had all of his other clothes he needed.

"wow, weird. I've never really taken care of kids before" Sharpay confessed after Gabriella and Martin left to go to the bathroom.

"Yeah" Taylor and Kelsie said in unison.

"I mean I've babysat before, but never really had to give them baths or anything like that" Taylor said.

"Yeah, same here." Keslie said.

The girls got ready and washed up in the guest and downstairs bathrooms while Gabriella and Martin were in Gabriella's bathroom. She handed him his clothes and let him change in the other part of her bathroom; it was separated so that the his and her sinks were there when you entered followed by the toilet and shower were behind the connecting door. She waited for him to finish and washed her face. By the time he got out, Gabriella was preparing to brush her teeth. She set Martin on the counter since he couldn't reach, and handed Martin his own toothbrush and the tube of toothpaste. She finished first, so she handed him a small paper cup with water so he could rinse. Gabriella leaned against the counter as she waited for him to finish, once they did, they were silent for a few seconds.

"Martin.." She sighed looking at him. The vent was still on, which was pretty loud, since he recently got out of the shower so no one could hear what they were saying or talking about.

* * *

After they finished talking, they walked back into Gabriella's room and decided to play a game with everyone else since it was still 5 minutes to 9. Gabriella didn't really have many kid games around, so she pulled out a deck of cards and they played go-fish.

"Hey Gabby, got any twos?" He asked.

"Nope. Go-fish." she said as he pouted. "Hey, whens your bedtime anyway?" She said glancing at her clock.

"8 on school days. And sometimes all the way to 10 if I don't fall asleep on the days I don't have school the next day" He told them, putting the card he picked up into his hand of cards.

"Hey Taylor got any kings? So, do you have school tomorrow?" Keslie asked. Taylor handed her a king.

"Nope, but there's another park day again. Are you and Chad gonna play with us again Taylor?" He turned to her

"Uhm, sure I'll go again, I'm not sure about Chad though, he might have other plans."

"Oh."

"We'll go!" Kelsie said excitedly, and Gabriella and Sharpay nodded. "If you want us to of course, and if it's okay..."

"Yeah!" Martin exclaimed.

"Yeah, I think it'll be fine. Mrs. Siggs is pretty nice." Taylor said.

"Mrs. Siggs? Oh! She used to be my teacher! Troy and Chad were in my class, but that's when we never really considered each other's existence. Or well, they never knew _I existed._" Kelsie sighed.

"Well, now they do." Sharpay smiled. "Man, I sometimes wish me and Ryan moved here back then."

"Ryan and I" Kelsie corrected her as always.

"How many times does she have to correct you when you forget to say "I" instead of "me"?" Gabriella laughed.

"Whatever." Sharpay said. "Anyways, I win." She laid out her cards of pairs.

"No fair!" Martin jumped.

"Yes, fair. Now, it's time for you to sleep... Or else we won't go to the park day thing with you." Taylor threatened.

"Okay." He gave in easily and got up towards the "bed" Gabriella made for him out of a sleeping bag and a few blankets on top of it to make a mattress, and a blanket and pillow on top.

"Uhm, I'll be right back." Gabriella got up and walked towards the guest room taking out her cell phone. She remembered that she and Troy already had plans to hang out on Monday, which happened to be tomorrow. She got into the guest room, turned on the light, closed the door behind her, sat on the black futon that was still folded into a couch, and hit Troy's number on speed dial. He had his phone off so she left a message.

"Hey Troy, its Gabby... Uhm, I know we had plans to hang out tomorrow, but something came up. I hope it was nothing special or anything, I mean it's not like we said it was a date or anything..." She paused at what she just said, she really wanted it to be a date,"but yeah, this is kinda important. It's a long story. I'll explain it to you later. I'm really sorry, soo uhm, just call me back when you get this alright? Okay, bye." She sighed and hung up her phone and walked back into her room.

"Hey Martin, what time does your park day thingy start?" Gabriella asked when she walked in, but only found him asleep already.

"Hah, I guessed we had too much fun 'fishing'" Kelsie joked, silently laughing to herself.

"Kels, you're soo we're sometimes." Taylor said.

"Yeah, but we still love you." Sharpay added.

"Ha ha you guys, very funny. Can't I have a little humor sometimes? Geez. Kill my fun." Keslie said pulling a blanket over her.

"It's okay, Kels, I personally love your humor." Gabriella laughed a little as she got into bed.

"Anyways, I think Martin said sometime about it starting early tomorrow, around 10 I think." Taylor said as she settled herself.

"Alright, then I guess we should all get some shut eye. Night girls." Gabriella greeted them as she reached to turn off the lamp. Right when she did Martin spoke up.

"Hey Gabby," He whispered. "Can you keep the light on?" He asked. Gabriella smiled.

"Uhm, hold on a sec, I've got just the thing." She said turning on the lamp again and opened her nightstand drawer. She pulled out a night light and plugged it in the output he was by.

"There. I used to be afraid of the dark when I was younger too." She admitted. "Now go to sleep." She said brushing his hair out of his face. Ever since she and Martin had a talk in the bathroom, she became fond of him.

"Night." He mumbled as Gabriella got up, and settled herself underneath her blanker.

"Night."

* * *

There you go.Hmm i should be able to get the next chapter up by today if my sister doesn't bug me to go on but yeahh, leave reviews. Tell me what you think.


	25. Smiles and Letdowns

Alright, here's Chapter 25. Sorry for not updating the other day, I didn't feel like splitting this into two chapters, and I've been working on my other story that'll be out soon. Soo yeah, this is one of my lonnnng chapters. haha. See you at the bottom!

* * *

Troy and the guys fell asleep early watching television in his room. The next morning Troy woke up early to a reminder he set on his cell phone since he put it underneath his pillow. He'd been waiting for this day to come. He had everything planned out. To calm himself down, he jumped into the shower and got ready, it was only 5 o'clock in the morning but he had to pick up Gabriella before 7 or his reservations for 7 o'clock would be given away. 

After he got out of the shower, he grabbed his cell phone to call Gabriella and walked into his walk-in closet so he wouldn't wake the guys as he got ready. He noticed a flashing envelope on his screen meaning he had a new voice mail. So he put his phone up to his ear and listened to the message as he looked for something perfect to wear so he could impress Gabriella.

"Hey Troy, its Gabby..." He heard her say and couldn't help but smile at the fact that she called.

"Uhm, I know we had plans to hang out tomorrow, but something came up." He smile instantly became a slight frown. "I hope it was nothing special or anything, I mean it's not like we said it was a date or anything..." He heard her pause and sigh, and he did the same. He planned it to be a date, but didn't want her to know in case she didn't feel the same way. Then he heard her continue, "but yeah, this is kinda important. It's a long story. I'll explain it to you later. I'm really sorry, soo uhm, just call me back when you get this alright? Okay, bye."

"I'm sorry too." Troy said softly as he hung up, let out a sigh, grabbed some sweats instead of jeans, and a plain white tee. After changing he pulled out his phone again and made another phone call.

"Hi, this is Troy Bolton, I had a reservation for this morning at 7. Uhm, I'd like to reschedule it please." He spoke into the receiver.

"Okay, Mr. Bolton, and when would you like to reschedule the date to?"

"Uhm, what days do you still have available for the same time?"

"Let's see, there's an opening on this coming Thursday, Friday, and Saturday for 7 am."

"Great, I'll take the Saturday at 7am please."

"Okay, so Monday 7am switching to Saturday 7am."

"Yep, that's correct."

"And under the name Troy Bolton was it?"

"Yes."

"Ah, here it is, okay, got it. Thank you Mr. Bolton, we'll see you Saturday."

"Thank you. Bye." He hung up. It was only 6:30 and the other guys were still asleep, so Troy decided to dry his hair and go back to sleep as well.

* * *

"Mrs. Montez caught an earlier flight and left the night before. She arrived at the house around 6 and walked into a quiet house, just as she predicted since it was still early. So she walked into the kitchen and started up some breakfast for the girls. 

Gabriella woke up to the sounds of some pots and plans downstairs. This scared her a bit, and the other girls woke up to the noises too. Martin was still asleep so the girls cautiously went down the stairs to see what was going on. They smelled the aroma of eggs and bacon as they came into the kitchen and saw Mrs. Montez cooking.

"Mom?" Gabriella asked.

"Hmm? Oh, hey girls, I'm sorry did I wake you?" Mrs. Montez asked.

"Oh, no it's fine Mrs. Montez, we should be used to it anyways since we normally have school on Mondays." Taylor said.

"Hey, why are you home so early, I thought you wouldn't be home until the afternoon?" Gabriella asked as she hugged her mom.

"Oh, I caught an early flight last night, and got in this morning. Why, you don't want me home?" Mrs. Montez laughed.

"No." Gabriella said sarcastically. "Anyways, Mom, uh, we need to talk to you about something..." She started.

"Okay," Her mom said placing the food onto the table for the girls to eat. "What about honey?"

"Well, we.." She was cut off by Martin entering the kitchen.

"I smell food." He mumbled and walked over to Kelsie and Sharpay.

"Wow, you already act like a typical guy." Sharpay joked and all the girls laughed.

"Hmm, so who's this?" Mrs. Montez asked as she saw Martin in his pajamas.

"Uh,that's what we wanted to talk to you about Mom." Gabriella turned back to her mother. "Martin is staying with us for a little bit." She said. Mrs. Montez was shocked, and looked back at the table where the girls were helping Martin put food on his plate.

"Gabby, can you help me bring my bags up to my room really quick." Mrs. Montez asked and Gabriella followed her mother, and brought her bags upstairs.

"Gabby, please tell me why there is a young boy staying with us." Mrs. Montez demanded, but in a polite way.

"Mom, he's a sweet kid. And... and.. See, his mother has a boyfriend, and he's got a temper. So his Mom asked Taylor to take care of him, but Taylor doesn't have any room at her house, so I was thinking he could stay with us."

"Oh my gosh. Is his mother okay?"

"I'm not sure, I've never met her, only Taylor, but we were gonna go over there when her boyfriend isn't there to see if everything is okay, and that if she needs, Martin can stay with us. Is that alright Mom?"

"I don't know, sweetie. I mean.." Mrs. Montez was cut off by a light knock on the door. It was Martin who had some juice spilled on his shirt.

"I'm sorry if I'm bothering you, but, uh, Gabby where's my stuff?" He asked. "Taylor said you put it somewhere."

"Oh. Yeah, just a sec, but Martin" She said walking over to the door, grabbed his hand, and led him to her mother. "This is my mom. Mom, this is Martin."

"Hello uh..Gabby's mom!" He smiled and waved.

"Hello there Martin." She smiled. "you can call me Mrs. Montez"

"Okay."

"C'mon let's go get you changed, then finish eating." Gabriella said holding out her hand again.

"Okay." He replied, taking her hand as she led him out the room, Mrs. Montez followed and went downstairs.

"These girls grow up faster than I thought." Mrs. Montez thought to herself and smiled as she saw Gabriella and the girls take care of Martin. Mrs. Montez told the girls that Martin could stay if he needed to, only if it was okay with his mother.

After they all finished eating breakfast and helping Mrs. Montez clean up so she didn't have to do so much since she just came back, they all went upstairs to get ready. The girls took their showers and all that while Martin waited and watched cartoons in Gabriella's room. Once all the girls were all dressed, they dragged Martin away from his cartoons to get him ready.

"C'mon Marty" Taylor said turning off the television.

"Who's Marty?" He asked getting up.

"You. We thought it was a cute nickname for you." Sharpay smiled.

"Uh, okay, my mom just calls me Mart sometimes."

"Well, we're not your mom, so we're calling you Marty." Taylor laughed.

"Here's your clothes I picked out from what your Mom left." Gabriella said handing him clean clothes, and just as he was about to speak she cut him off. "Yes, everything is there. I double checked." She winked.

"Thanks Gabby!" He turned and ran to the bathroom.

"Wow, you're really good with him." Kelsie said.

"Yeah, he's a sweet kid." Gabriella sighed.

"Yep, which is a good thing since he can't stay at my house, at least you two get along pretty well." Taylor said. "You're mom is so great and understanding."

"So are your parents." Gabriella laughed.

"Yeah, but not as cool as your mom." Taylor smiled.

"Hmm, my parents don't really care what Ryan and I do. Or well, most of the time." Sharpay said looking at herself in her compact mirror.

"Wow, you actually said it right this time." Kelsie smiled

"Said what?" Sharpay closed her compact and looked at Kelsie.

"You didn't say 'me' and this person or however you explain it."

"Really? Wow, I guess with all your corrections on my grammar are finally starting to show!" Sharpay grinned. Then Martin entered the room dressed.

"I'm ready!" He said.

"Great, well let's go, it's 9:15 and we need to get their early to let Mrs. Siggs know." Taylor said. "Let's take two cars, just in case something happens to the bus again." Taylor suggested.

Gabriella and Kelsie drove their cars; Sharpay riding with Keslie, and Taylor and Martin with Gabriella. They got to the park, they made their way to the same place where Chad and Taylor met with Mrs. Siggs, and sure enough she was already there.

* * *

At Troy's house 

The guys woke up to Chad's cell phone ringing; Taylor was calling him.

"Hello?" He said.

"Hey Chad! It's Taylor."

"Yep, I know who you are babe, why are you calling so early though?" He said sitting up.

"Oh, well the girls and I decided to take Martin to the park today, like yesterday."

"There's another one?"

"Yeah, we're here already, and Mrs. Siggs just wanted me to ask you if you wanted to help out again. She was kinda glad that Martin pulled us all along since she's short on volunteers again."

"Oh. Uhm yeah, I'll be there soon I guess."

"Great! I see you in a little bit."

"Yeah. Hey Tay?"

"Yes Chad?"

"I'll only help if you're my partner again." He smiled.

"And why wouldn't you be?" She laughed. "Anyways gotta go. Bye"

"Alright bye." Chad and Taylor hung up their phones. Chad looked up to see all the guys looking at him.

"Dude, can't you put your cell phone on vibrate or something?" Zeke asked.

"Sorry."

"So what did Taylor want?" Ryan asked.

"Oh, she wanted me to go help Mrs. Siggs again since she and the girls took Martin there today. You guys wanna come? It's at that big park with the lake in the middle.

"Yeah, sure, I'm in." Troy said.

"Yeah" the rest of the guys agreed.

"Hey I thought you had your big plans today with Gabriella?" Jason asked.

"Yeah, well, she called me last night and canceled. I didn't find out until this morning when I was getting ready."

"Ouch. I'm sorry dude, well I'm sure it was something important. I mean, Gabby likes you." Jason said.

"How do you know?" Troy asked.

"Oh my gosh, how do you not know man?" Chad exclaimed. "Don't get us started on this again. So you think Brad will wanna go to?"

"Uh, I don't know, I don't wanna just leave him in the house alone. Let me go ask." Troy said getting out of bed, and walked over to the guest room. He knocked on the door.

"Come in." Brad said looking up from his book.

"Wow, you're awake early."

"Yeah, I've been up since 6:30. I'm used to it since we usually have school on Mondays... and I heard someone in the shower."

"Yeah, that was me, I was supposed to go out early but something came up. So anyways," Troy said trying to forget about his plans being canceled. "The guys and I were wondering if you wanted to come with us to go help out an old teacher Chad and I used to have. It's kinda like community service; we need the hours anyways so it looks good on college apps."

"Yeah, sure. I need more hours anyhow." He smiled and closed his book. "I'll get ready."

"Alright." Troy said leaving the room, and walked back to his. Chad was already in the shower, and so was Ryan in the downstairs shower. Once everyone else got the chance to shower and change, they left. Ryan finished getting ready early so he drove his car so he could pick up Camille since Chad said it was okay that she went too.

Ryan got to Camille's house and rang the doorbell. Camille answered the door and let him in.

"I'll just be a minute. You kinda called last minute." She laughed.

"Yeah, sorry about that" Ryan said taking a seat on the couch.

"Oh, it's no problem, hey do you mind if my brother comes along? My mom says he doesn't get out enough."

"Of course he can. I don't think anyone else would mind. They're short a few hands anyways, so that's a good thing." He smiled as he saw her coming back downstairs.

"Great. You're so sweet." She hugged him.

"Anything for you." He grinned, "So where is Jeremy?"

"He should be down here any sec. Hey Jeremy! Get down here already!"

"Alright, alright, geez Cam, don't have to scream so loud." He said running down the stairs. "Hey Rye. What's up?"

"Nothing much, but we should get going soon."

"Then shall we?" Jeremy opened the front door.

"We shall." Camille said leading the way to Ryan's car and they were off.

* * *

After Taylor called Chad;; 

Taylor hung up her phone and went to site with the girls and Martin at a table. None of the other kids were there yet, so they were waiting.

"Hey, can I go play on the playground since we're waiting?" Martin asked.

"Yeah, sure," Sharpay answered. "Just make sure we can see you though."

"Okay." And he ran off towards the playground.

"Hey guys.." Gabriella sighed. "Uh remember yesterday, when we saw Marty walk into the room naked."

"Yeah.." The girls said in unison. "Awkward moment." Kelsie added.

"Yeah, well, since you guys were more like in front of him, and I was at his side, I saw him from a different angle." Gabriella spoke.

"What do you mean? When a person is naked, a person is naked" Sharpay started.

"Sharpay, let me finish. Well, I didn't want to tell you guys at first until I was positive."

"Okay, Gabby, what are you trying to say?"

"Guys, Martin's mom's boyfriend hits him." She said quietly.

"What!" They all gasped together as if they practiced.

"Are you sure?" Kelsie asked. Gabriella nodded.

"We talked when I took him into the bathroom after he came into my room."

* * *

_Flashback._

_Gabriella waited for Martin to finish brushing his teeth, the loud vent was still on to clear up the foggy mirrors. Once he finished, he sat on the counter as Gabriella leaned against it._

"_You saw it didn't you?" Martin looked down at his dangling feet._

"_Hmm?" Gabriella hadn't been paying attention._

"_You saw it, right?" he said softly again. Gabriella nodded._

"_Martin, what happened? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but just know that you can trust me.." She said._

"_My mom's boyfriend hits me when he has to take care of me when my mom works sometimes." he started. Gabriella gasped in shock of how a person can treat such a young kid like that._

"_I didn't bother telling my mom. It would just worry her more. I hear them fight a lot. I don't think she knows that I know though." He said, with a tear falling off his chin. "I know my mom asked Taylor if I could stay with you guys so I wouldn't get hurt."_

"_You've known this entire time?" Gabriella asked looking at him. He nodded._

"_Yeah. I thought it would be better if I didn't worry you guys either. I doesn't hurt a lot anymore" he said pointing to his back where Gabriella saw the huge bruise. "It only hurt for the first few days. He didn't hit me since then." He admitted._

"_Are you sure?" She asked looking at him in the eyes. He nodded, looking straight back at her._

"_Well, if he ever hits you, or even comes close, I want you to tell me. I don't want it happening to you, again, ever. You don't deserve it, and neither does your mom." She pulled him into a hug, which he accepted and hugged her back. After a few seconds, they let go and headed back to Gabriella's room.

* * *

"Wow." was all the girls could get out after Gabriella finished telling them what she and Martin had discussed the previous night. _

"So that's why you turned all motherly-like." Sharpay added.

"I have not." Gabriella argued.

"Yes you have Gabby, but no worries, it's sweet. I mean, if I knew that when we first met him, I probably would've acted the same naturally." Kelsie said.

"Same here." Taylor finally chimed in. "You are probably the most mature one out of the group."

"Ew, no I'm not. I always thought you were." Gabriella said.

"I thought you both were!" Sharpay and Kelsie said in unison.

"Whatever." Gabriella and Taylor said together.

"Anyways you guys, it's a good thing though." Kelsie added.

"Yeah I guess." Gabriella said. "Hey look, it's Ryan and Camille." Gabriella said looking up and pointing to Ryan, Camille, and Jeremy. "And some other guy." She added. The girls turned around and waved.

* * *

Okay, so to me this was just a bunch of fluff. LOL. but i thought it was too important to skip. The next chapter(s) will be even more interesting, well, because they're gonna be the last. I think i'll only have 3 more, 5 the most. Soo hope all you guys Review! Because the fun is almost over... until the sequel. I prolly won't get the next chapter up until wednesday because we're back in school, but i'll try tonight or tomorrow! Okay, now go review, or else i won't update. LOL. 


	26. Math makes Friends?

LALALA, Enjoy! only a few more chapters left... LOL, annd i didn't think you guys would think that the other chapter would be that sad.. But I read it over.. and i guess it was. Haha, but yeahh. Before you read this, Jeremy(Camille's brother) IS **NOT** the flower guy from the beginning. And a brief explanation of Jeremy&Camille before you read this as well.. It'll help you understand more..

Camille and Jeremy are twins like Ryan and Sharpay. Their parents are divorced and each parent got custody over one of them; Camille with her dad, and Jeremy with his mom. Jeremy lived in Utah, and Camille previously in New York. Their father is transfered a lot like Gabriella's mom, soo she's been to many places which is why their mom let Jeremy visit them for vacation, so they could see the same places. But Camille eventually got frustrated as her dad became constantly busy, and started talking to her mom about it. Their mom and Jeremy were moving to Albequrque because their mom was offered a promtion which required a move, and thought it would be best if Camille moved with them, which she did. They ended up going to east high about a week and a half after Gabriella arrived, and the triple win passed, but had to have private tutoring since they both came from different schools, which were set to different curriculums.

Soo hope that clears everything up for this chapter. Enjoy!

* * *

"I didn't know Ryan and Camille were coming, I guess they brought a friend too." Sharpay said as she waved.

Ryan, Camille, and Jeremy saw the girls sitting at the table and walked towards them once they got out of the car. Ryan saw the girls waving, and he waved back. Camille saw them, and waved as well, but Jeremy didn't since he didn't know who they were. Once they finally got to the table, they took a seat as the girls made room for them.

"Hey guys," Taylor greeted.

"Hey" Ryan and Camille said. Jeremy sat silently looking at his feet under the table, he didn't look up to see the girls.

"Oh, I forgot you guys haven't met yet. Girls, this is my twin brother Jer---"

"Jeremy?" Gabriella asked, his eyes widened as they shot up to meet Gabriella's, who was sitting across from him.

"Um, yeah, Jermz this is Taylor, Kelsie, Sharpay, and I guess you know Gabby" Camille looked over at them with a confused face after she finished pointing to the girls.

"Hello." He said to the girls.

"Wait, how do you guys already know each other? Do you have a class together or something?" Ryan tuned into the conversation.

"Yeah, how do you guys know each other?" Camille asked.

"Oh, uhm, well..." Gabriella said nervously.

"Well, since you lived with dad in New York, and I was living with mom in Utah, I kinda got into studying and stuff. And, I was sent this thing for a math convention type of thing for kids all over the United States last summer."

"So that's why you couldn't visit me and dad..." Camille said.

"You guys got into the USMC?" Taylor said shocked. (NOTE: I made up that USMC thing..LOL)

"What's that?" Shapay asked.

"the United States Math Convention for Teens." Gabriella informed her.

"Ohh, sounds like your type of thing Gabby." Sharpay joked. "Just kidding.."

"Anyways, we were partners there, out of 25 other pairs. One rep from every state." Gabriella told them blushing.

"Man, I've always wanted to get in." Taylor sighed.

"Why didn't you?" Ryan asked.

"You have to be nominated. And once you're nominated you're always invited back, but you never work with the first year kids." Taylor explained.

"Interesting." Camille said.

"Volunteers! I need your help." Mrs. Siggs called for them. Then they all got up and started to walk towards Mrs. Siggs.

"Hey, Gabriella. Can I talk to you?" Jeremy asked as they were walking. The two were a little bit behind the group when he asked.

"Yeah, of course." She said with a little hesitation in her voice. Then he stopped and grabbed her arm.

"You know, we never broke up. I mean, you just left out of nowhere that summer. A second year person had to replace you as my partner." He said looking straight into her eyes. "I missed you."

"I know, Jeremy." She said wrapping her arms around herself. "I... I missed you too, and I'm sorry I just left like that, but my mom was transferred again to Chicago. And we were only there three months till we moved here to Albequerque." She explained.

"Oh." He said. "So how long have you been here?"

"About a month or so." She said and paused. After about a minute of the two standing in silence, Jeremy broke it.

"So, what are we?" He asked, looking at the grass as he placed his hands in his pockets. "I mean, since we never broke up or anything... I still have feelings for you Gabriella Montez" He slowly brought his head up andlooked at her eyes.

"I...uhm." Gabriella shooked her head a little to focus her thoughtdsand looked at the ground, and back at Jeremy. "I mean, I'm not sure what we are."

"Do you still have feelings for me?" He asked grabbing her hand and placing it in his. Gabriella's heart raced as she felt the grasp of Jeremy's hand. She hadn't felt that way since she and Jeremy met. She searched down inside her heart for an answer. Jeremy had taken both of her hands in his by now, and they stood, staring at each other. Gabriella was still trying to look for an answer as she gazed into his eyes.

* * *

Troy, Brad, Chad, Jason, and Zeke finally got to the park. They each drove separately, except for Brad who rode with Troy since he didn't know where the park was, just in case; Chad's idea for obvious reasons. 

"Hey, you never said all the girls were gonna be here." Zeke smiled and ran over to Sharpay.

"Hm, I thought it was just Taylor, but whatver that's cool." Chad said, then he and Jason lightly jogged over to the girls. Brad had disappeared to the swings when he first spotted them as he and the rest of the guys passed them. Troy stopped and looked around for Gabriella. Then he saw her, far enough that she didn't know he was there. He saw her holding hands with a totally different guy and Troy froze at the sight.

_That's what was so important! But what about the other day, that didn't mean anything? I guess not. Or to Gabby at least. _Troy thought to himself. He stood and watched for a minute. The two looked as if they were a couple in love from his point of view. Then he couldn't take it anymore. He sighed and walked back toward his car, he didn't want to be there.

"Hey Troy, where you going?" Brad asked as he was making his way to where he was originally supposed to be.

"Huh? What?" Troy hadn't been paying attention. "Where have you been?"

"Oh, hah, I was on the swings for a bit. I couldn't resist,I haven't been on one in years."

"Oh." Troy sighed.

"So where you going? I thought we were helping your guys' teacher or something."

"Yeah, I'm not up to it. I think I'm gonna go chill somewhere else." Troy said trying not to think about Gabriella.

"Hmm, mind if I tag along? It kinds looks like they have enough helpers." Brad said pointing to the gang plus other people that came to help as well.

"Yeah, c'mon. Let's go." With that said, Troy and Brad left.

* * *

"Alright. It looks like I haven't got just a group of young kids, but a fairly large group of teens as well" Mrs. Siggs laughed. "But the more, the more fun." she smiled. "Okay I'd like you all to split into partners. If there are any extras, you may have a group of three. Then I will see how many kids there are for each of the groups today." 

The other volunteers that the gang didn't know were already paired off, so they did the same; Chad & Taylor, Jason & Kelsie, Zeke & Sharpay, and Ryan with Camille.

"Hey were's Troy and Brad?" Jason said looking around.

"Hey, Troy just called, or well, Brad did with Troy's phone. They said they headed out to go do something. They said they probably won't be able to come back." Zeke told the guys.

"Alright." Chad shrugged, then went to go join Taylor, as did the other two with the other girls.

* * *

"Um, I think we should get back to Mrs. Siggs." Gabriella said without answering Jeremy's question, he let go of her hands as she turned away and started walking, so he followed. 

"Hey, uh, I guess you two are paired up." Kelsie said as they came to join the group.

"Where have you two been?" Sharpay asked.

"Just catching up on things." Gabriella said and Jeremy nodded.

"Alrighty, looks like all of you get two children, some of you will get three since more are still supposed to show up, but seeing as there are soo many of you today, the groups are smaller. If you like, you guys can combine your groups together, but I will still hold you responsible for your assigned children"

* * *

"So, where did you wanna go?" Brad asked as they pulled out of the parking lot. 

"I don't know. I think we should just go back to the house and clean up a bit before my parent's freak out and never let the guys come over again."

"Hah, you're right, it is kind of messy now that I think about it."

"Yeah, but you don't have to help you know, I mean you're a guest."

"Yeah, but I am going to _live_ with you guys for a while remember? So I should get used to kicking in my share. Besides I'm used it since my Dad never did much."

"Alright, if you say so." Troy laughed, still in pain from when he saw Gabriella with a guy he had noidea who he was.

* * *

The gang ended up with all the kids that were in the group Chad and Taylor watched over the previous day. They all pulled themselves together as one big group so the kids wouldn't get bored with just them. After the day went by of more finger painting, playing on the playground, and playing other games, the kids all left on the bus this time. They all left except for Martin who stayed close to Gabriella and Taylor after all the kids left. The guys said their goodbyes to the girls and were getting ready to go as they were all walking towards the parking lot. Chad and Taylor were holding Martin between themselves, so Jeremy took this as the chance to talk to Gabriella again. 

"So..." He started, as they were walking.

"Look, Jeremy, the answer is yes." Gabriella said.

"Really?" He said with a look of relief on his face. Gabriella smiled a bit but then it went away.

"But there's someone else." She stopped to look him in the eye. "I mean, I do still have feelings for you and everything, but things have changed. It's been so long since we've seen each other... I'm sorry."

"It's fine, I totally understand. I hope he's the right guy for you Gabriella." He stared into her eyes. He meant it. He understood that they _hadn't_ seen each other in a while., and things did change. "I guess, I just wanted you back since you disappeared into thin air without a word, so I guess I worried so much that I missed you more..."

"Thanks, and yeah, I'm sorry about that. But we can still be friends right?"

"Yeah, of course." He smiled and pulled her into a hug, which she happily accepted and hugged him back.

_I wonder where Troy is since all the other guys are here... _Gabriella thought to herself as sheand the gang made theirway to the cars.

"Hey Chad, why are all of you guys here, and Troy isn't?" She asked as she walked towards Chad for an answer.

"Yeah." All the other girls plusRyan agreed.

"Oh, he's chilling with his cousin. Family bonding I guess." Chad laughed.

"Oh." Gabriella said and thought nothing more of it. The girls and guys all said their goodbyes and said they'd see each other at school the next day. It was still early, so the girls headed back to Gabriella's house before they would have to go talk to Martin's mom.

The guys all headed back to Troy's house to get their things since they had school the next day. Ryan went to Camille's and Jeremy's house for a bit to hang out.

* * *

You guys like? Well REVIEW PLEASE!( kinda sad how like only an average of 10 people leave reviews out of the average of 200 people who read my story everytime theres a new chapter.. Soo, please review, it helps me as stupid as that sounds, but it does. Hmm, and thanks to those of you who have been reading my story from the start. You guys are cool. By the way, have you guys noticed I cut down my HAHAs? i just did. LOL, i basically only say it in my little notes that i leave before and after the chapters. Wee. Mmmkay, i'll let you review now. 


	27. Explain that to me

Eh, sorry for the long wait. I've been busy with studying for my AP exams coming up. But no worries, i still write this during my free time. It just takes longer. But yeahh, enjoy folks!

* * *

As Gabriella pulled into her driveway, Martin was already asleep. The carefully woke him up and told him he could go nap in Gabriella's room until they would go talk to his mom.

"So what was with all those getaways with Jeremy, Gabby?" Sharpay asked nosily when they walked into Gabriella's house.

"Huh?" Gabby asked, she wasn't paying attention to Sharpay when she asked.

"I was asking how come you and Jeremy had all those little talks today?"

"Oh, you know, just catching up on things."

"Seemed like more than that to me." Taylor said. "I kinda remember seeing you guys hold hands when I turned around to see why you two were taking so long when we went over to Mrs. Siggs." Taylor was looking at Gabriella with a serious face. She didn't know what Gabriella was trying to pull.

"Yeah, I thought you liked Troy?" Kelsie asked. All three girls were confused. They knew Gabriella liked Troy, a lot, but they didn't understand why she would jump to things and hold hands and stuff with another guy.

"Geez you guys, quit pressuring me." Gabriella snapped. "I think I got enough of that to last a few months from the musical and everything."

"Sorry Gabby." They all said embarrassed.

"It's just, we thought you and Troy were..." Taylor started.

"Troy and I aren't really anything but friends. We never established anything between us _but _a friendship." Gabriella sighed. "I don't know about the kiss..."

"So what was all that with Jeremy then?" Kelsie looked at Gabriella. They were all sitting on the big couch in the living room.

"Well, when Jeremy and I were at the math convention, we kinda clicked. I wasn't really used to talking to people much since I was always the 'Freaky Math Girl', but there everyone was into math..." She explained. "And we kinda eventually considered ourselves a couple. He made me feel likeI was a part of somethingfor once.But then I had to move suddenly, and I never got the chance to say goodbye."

"Wow." Sharpay said.

"And well, today he asked me if I still cared for him since we never officially broke up. And I do, but not the same way anymore, since I met Troy..."

"So you do still like Troy."

"Of course. Jeremy and I discussed it and decided we'd _just_ be friends."

"Well, that's good. But either way, they're both cute." Sharpay said.

"Sharpay!" The girls exclaimed.

"What! Guys' eyes wonder around all the time, so girls have the right too. Plus I was just saying. I mean you guys can't deny the fact that they are both cute. Besides I have Zeke, and I'm happy" She smiled and they all laughed.

* * *

"So what was that all about?" Camille asked on the way home.

"What was what about?" Ryan asked.

"I mean Jermz and Gabby."

"What about Gabriella and I?" Jeremy asked from the back seat.

"Why were you guys always together? C'mon I sense something going on, I'm your twin!" She said when they got out of the car and walked into the house.

"She's got a point, twins do have that weird thing sometimes." Ryan stated as he took a seat on the couch.

"We used to be a couple, that's all. So we were just catching up." He simply said.

"What!" both Ryan and Camille looked over at Jeremy.

"You two used to go out!" Camille asked.

"Yeah, and we never really broke up since she moved suddenly, and I had to have a replacement partner..." He started to explain until he was cut off by his sister.

"But I thought she and Troy..." she said out loud. Ryan realized what Camille was thinking about. _Didn't Gabby and Troy like each other?_ They both thought.

"Troy?" Jeremy asked.

"I've gotta get going." Ryan got up. "I'll see you guys tomorrow." he told them and hugged Camille goodbye, then left.

* * *

"Phew." Brad collapsed onto the couch and put his feet onto the table. "I didn't think we could clean that fast."

"Haha, yeah, and I would still be cleaning if you hadn't helped. Thanks Brad."

"No problemo. Hmm, so what do you wanna do now?"

"Not sure, my parents shouldn't be back till tonight, and the guys still aren't back."

"Yeah." Brad said in agreement. Just then all the guys walked into the house.

"Hey guys." They both sat up from the couches they were laying on.

"Hey, how come you guys didn't stay?" Jason asked as hetook a seat next to Troy, as the other guys filled the empty spaces on the couch as well. Just then Ryan walked in.

"Hey guys." Ryan greeted.

"Oh, uh, we just thought we should really clean the house before my parents got home. It was a real mess."

"We would've helped you know." Chad stated.

"Yeah, well, we just thought it would be a good idea if we got it done just in case if my parents came home early or something." Troy said.

"Yeah, well I should get going. I still have to work on some homework to finishbefore school tomorrow." Zeke said.

"Us too." Chad, Ryan, and Jason said. The guys gathered there things and started to leave.

"See you guys tomorrow."

"Yeah, later!" Chad said.

"Bye" Zeke and Jason waved as the walked out the door.

"Hey, do you guys wanna help me with my math homework?" Chad asked outside"We can all go to my house."

"Yeah, if Ryan helps me with my French." Jason said turning to Ryan.

"Only, if Zeke teaches me how to bake his famous cookies." Ryan said looking at Zeke.

"Haha, alright, but you have to help me catch up in history." Zeke turned to Chad

"Hah, alight, my house it is." Chad said as he opened his car door. They all drove off to Chad's house and called their parents to tell them what their plan was. Their parents had no problem with it since they were all getting help for their homework, except for Ryan, but his parents weren't back from their trip yet. When they got to Chad's house, his parents were still at work, so they went into the kitchen to find something to eat.

"Hey, guys, in your opinion, how much would you say he liked Gabriella?" Ryan asked.

"Why? Don't tell me you've got something for Gabby..." Chad said.

"No, no it's not like that at all. Camille and I are going out remember?"

"Yeah. I forgot, it was just the way your question was stated I guess. Anyways, I think he'd be into basketball like he was before we met Gabby, but ten times more into it." Chas said as he took a drink from his soda.

"Troy's got it bad for Gabby, man." Zeke said

"Yeah, let's just say Troy would choose Gabby over any girl in New Mexico. Wait no, probably the world. That's how much he likes Gabby."

"Yeah, I get your point" Ryan sighed.

"Why do you ask anyways?" Zeke asked.

"Well, did you guys know that she has a boyfriend already?" Ryan said with a serious face.

"What!" They all shot looks at Ryan.

"Who!" Chad exclaimed.

"Jeremy, Camille's brother."

"How is that possible? How'd you find this out?" Chad demanded.

"Well, when we got to the park, we were earlier than you guys, and Camille asked if Jeremy could come along, so I said yeah. And when we saw the girls at a table we went to go join them, and we introduced Jeremy to them, but Gabby already knew him. I went over to their house for a little while when I dropped them off today. And Camille asked how Jeremy knew her. So he told us the story how they met at a math convention, and they were partners, they became a couple, and yeah. Once I heard that I got up and left because I wanted to tell Troy." Ryan explained the story.

"Are you sure?" Jason asked.

"Yeah, that's what I heard from his mouth." Ryan said.

"Well, there has to be some kind of mistake." Zeke added.

"There's no way Gabriella would act like this with Troy if she had a boyfriend already. I mean she's way too sweet for that. She wouldn't string guys liek that.She and Troy kissed!" Chad nearly shouted.

"I know. I'm just telling you what I heard." Ryan held his hands up in a surrendering position.

"I guess we'll have to wait till tomorrow to see what's going on exactly." Zeke calmly said.

"You're right. We shouldn't over think this, and make a big deal until we know everything." Chad agreed. "We should start our homework before you guys have to go."

All the guys agreed to wait until they knew everything before jumping to conclusions. But right now they were only concerned about Troy, and their homework that they needed to finish.

* * *

"We should get going." Kelsie said. "I've still gotta help Sharpay study for French back at my house."

"Yeah, hopefully I won't fail this test." Sharpay said grabbing her things. "Good luck with Marty's mom and everything. Tell him we say 'bye'"

"Be safe you guys. See you tomorrow!" Kelsie said and walked out the door.

"Toodles!" Sharpay said as she left.

"I think we should head over to Marty's house." Taylor suggested. "before it gets late."

"Yeah." Gabriella nodded in agreement. "I'll go wake him up."

"Good, I'll call his house just to make sure."

"Alright." Gabriella headed upstairs to wake Martin up, and get him ready while Taylor called his mom.

"Hey, Grace?" Taylor spoke.

"Yes, this is Grace." her voice said on the other end of the line.

"Hi, it's Taylor. I was wondering if me, Martin, and a friend of mine could drop by to talk to you for a bit."

"Oh, Hi Taylor! Uhm, yeah that's fine. My boyfriend is working a little late today anyways. Is there something wrong with Martin?"

"No, no it's nothing like that. We just wanted to talk to you about something, and we thought it'd be best if it was in person."

"Oh, okay. So what time will you guys be over?"

"Uhm, well we were thinking about right now if that's okay?"

"Yeah, that would be best, you know just in case."

"Alright, we'll see you in about ten minutes."

"See you."

"Bye." Taylor hung up her phone, just as Martin and Gabriella came marching down the stairs.

"So...?" Gabriella lead on.

"She said right now would be a good time." Taylor answered her.

"Great. Let's get going." Gabriella said grabbing her keys, and jacket. They all filed out the door just as Mrs. Montez was coming home from the grocery store.

"Hey you three, where you heading off to?" Mrs. Montez asked.

"We're gonna go to Martin's house really quick to talk to his mom." Gabriella informed her. Mrs. Montez gave her an unsure look, but then looked down at the driveway where Martin and Taylor were getting into Gabriella's car.

"Alright, just be careful sweetie. Call me if _anything_ happens." Her mother said with a demanding motherly voice and kissed her daughter on her forehead.

"Yes, mom. Don't worry, you know me." Gabriella smiled. Her mother understood what Gabriella was trying to say. She knew that she was trustworthy, responsible, and mature. "We'll be back soon." Gabriella called back to her mother as she ran to her car. Once she started her car, Mrs. Montez walked inside to put the groceries away.

* * *

Mmkay, yeah. There it is. This was kinda just a bunch of fluff to me again, just to get to the point where i'ma end this. Next chapter is the last i think? Lots will be happening but it'll all tie in together. And i'm not sure if the sequel will come out right after this ends since i have a lot to work on. but yeah, i'll try. OH. & about my other story i've been working on, i had to start it over just because i wanted to get some facts straight since its about the REALpeople(zac, ashley, vanessa, lucas, etc.) and stuff. So i guess you can say i need to do more "research" on certain things. LOL. aiight go REVIEW please&thank yous.


	28. Give up

Okay, sorry it took soo long to get this last chapter up. LOL. I started to write it, but then a bunch of ways to end this started coming to mind, soo i wasn't sure which way to end it. But I finally picked one that'll be best to start off the sequel. This chapter is REALLYlong,Soo here it is, the last chapter; Enjoy!

* * *

"Alright, let's get this show on the road." Taylor breathed and opened her door on her side of the car. Martin and Gabriella nodded and got out of the car from their individual doors and started towards the house. They got to the porch and rang the doorbell, where Grace answered it.

"Hi Taylor. Martin!" Grace exclaimed as she embraced her son with tears forming.

"Mommy!" He tightened his grip on his mother. Gabriella and Taylor looked at each other a smiled at the sight of the two reuniting.

"Thank you so much." Grace said as she let go of her son. "Please, come in. We still have some time before he gets home."

"It's no problem, Grace, but you should really thank my friend, Gabriella, here. We were staying at her house." Taylor smiled as she walked in.

"Oh, It's very nice to meet you Gabriella, I'm Grace." She smiled.

"It's very nice to meet you too. Thank you for your hospitality." Gabriella said as she walked into the house.

"It's the least I could do for what you two have done for me. There's no way I could possibly repay you."

"It's fine, trust me, you have a great son." Gabriella reassured her.

"Thanks, so what is it that you said you guys wanted to talk about?" Grace asked, turning to Taylor.

"Well, we know that you're being abused." Taylor said with a serious yet sympathetic tone, "and when I say we, I mean all three of us." Taylor said pointing to Gabriella, Martin, and herself. Grace just nodded, fear and disappointment in her eyes.

"And Martin needs to tell you something as well too." Gabriella added, and looked down at Martin.

"Mommy..." Martin said taking his jacket off. "He hit me." Martin took off his shirt, and showed her his back. Grace broke down in tears at the sight and hugged her only son.

"I'm so sorry baby." She hugged him tighter. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay Mom, I'm a big boy. And it doesn't hurt much anymore." He hugged.

"Grace, you need help a.s.a.p." Taylor told her. "I know it's hard since he's a cop and all, but you have to."

"Taylor and I were thinking that Martin should stay with my mom and I. We have plenty of room, and I already talked about it with my mother. She said that you could too..." Gabriella was cut off.

"Yeah, you two are right. About everything. If it's truly alright, I'd like him to stay with you. I on the other hand can't. He'll find a way to do something..." She wiped a tear off her cheek. "Martin go upstairs and pack some clothes & things." She told her son.

"Here, I'll give you a hand." Taylor insisted. "I don't want you to forget important things like underwear. You two can talk about the details." She said to Grace and Gabriella, and followed Martin upstairs.

"Are you sure about not staying with us Grace?" Gabriella wanted her to be safe as well.

"Yeah, my boyfriend Tom will probably have the whole city searched..." Grace told her getting up to get a book, pen, and piece of paper. She started jotting things down.

"Well, you can visit anytime you want." Gabriella smiled. "We'll take good care of him. Promise."

"Thank you. You're such a mature girl for your age." Grace looked up, then continued writing.

"Yeah, my mom tells me that a lot. So would you like us to pick him up from school and all that? Or do you want to?"

"Uhm, I think it's best if you do. I'd like to visit on my days off though, if that's okay."

"That's no problem, I mean he's your son." Gabriella chuckled.

"Here." Grace handed her a paper. "It's a list of everything you need to know. Emergency numbers of family members, doctors, school, my cell, the house, and where the important documents are..."

"Important documents? " Gabriella looked at her confused. "I don't think that's really necessary."

"I know, but just in case, you know?" Gabriella nodded and understood.

"Here's my number, then." Gabriella took the pen from the table and tore off a piece of the paper Grace gave her. "My last name is Montez, but I don't want to put it on here in case your boyfriend finds it. You know, to keep Martin safe." She informed. "I wrote it backwards. Just in case. That's my cell, so you can call me when you want to visit, and I'll give you the address and stuff to my house."

"Thank you soo much. You have no idea how much this means to me." Grace said, and looked up to see Taylor and Martin standing with a few bags.

"He's a quick packer." Taylor laughed. "He picked out some toys, stuff for school, and all that without my help! The only thing I had to remind him about was socks." Everyone laughed.

"Well, we're gonna go put these in your car Gabby." Gabriella nodded and gave Taylor her keys.

"Oh, hey, put this in my glove compartment would you?" Gabriella asked, handing Taylor the paper with the numbers and things on it.

"Sure thing."

Outside Taylor and Martin marched to Gabriella's car and opened the trunk. They started putting the bags in the car and suddenly Martin gasped.

"Oh my gosh. He's home early!" he yelped and ran onto the other side of the car where he couldn't be seen, and jumped into the back passenger seat."

"Gabby." Taylor gasped and pulled out her cell phone, called Gabriella's cell on speed dial, and jumped into the driver's seat and put the key in the ignition in case.

Taylor and Martin watched Grace's boyfriend, Tom, get out of his car. He didn't look too pleased. This worried Taylor.

"Hello? Aren't you guys just outside Gabriella asked?"

"Yeah, but he's here! Get out right now!"

"What?" Gabriella's eyes grew. "Okay bye." She said quickly. "Hide that!" Gabriella told grace who was still holding the paper. "You're boyfriend's home."

"What! He's early." Grace shot up and hid Gabriella's contact information in a safe place. "You have to get out." she whispered, her voice full of fear.

"How? He'll see me!"

"Grace? I'm home!" Tom yelled from the front door. He heard no reply to his call, only whispers. This made him suspicious, he grabbed a small glass vase nearby. "Grace!" His voice beginning to rage. "Who's here!" he yelled, walking slowly to the kitchen. He walked into the kitchen without thinking and smashed the vase against the back Gabriella's head, who had her back faced towards him because she was talking to Grace. Gabriella fell onto the floor unconcious.

"Oh my gosh!" Grace shrieked. "She was just a girl!" She cried.

"I thought it was..." Tom spoke realizing what he had just done. "I thought you were cheating on me." He said taking a step back. He had just knocked a teenage girl unconscious when he had no intention to. Then he started taking more steps back. "I didn't mean to..." He kept repeating; it was like he was a changed man who had a caring heart.

_Did hitting Gabriella make him change all of a sudden? _Grace asked herself as she was kneeling down by Gabriella's side. Tom turned quickly and ran up stairs.

"Where is she!" Taylor exclaimed. "Martin stay in here, and keep low." She handed him her cell phone. "I want you to call Mrs. Montez and tell her your address and to come immediately." Martin nodded as Taylor handed him her phone, "It's already calling her house, but if it no one answers leave a message, and try again. Just push "4" then the green button okay? I'm going to go see what's happening."

Martin just sat in the back seat and nodded, understanding everything. "Be careful." He told Taylor.

Taylor ran back across the street to the house. She opened the door slowly and listened. It was silent except for some crying. Taylor took a deep breath and entered the house. She didn't see anyone, so she walked into the kitchen.

"Oh my gosh! Gabby!" Taylor cried. She was looking at her best friend on the floor. Taylor nearly collapsed next to her friend and checked to see if she had a pulse and was still breathing. Taylor then noticed that the back of her head was bleeding. "Grace, call an ambulance!"

Grace hadn't noticed the bleeding, and immediately shot up and called. After she finished Taylor looked at her.

"What happened!" Taylor asked in tears.

"Tom..." She panted. "He, thought another guy was here, and hit her with a vase. He didn't know. He suddenly changed though.. It was weird." Grace said quickly.

"Where is he?"

"Upstairs. I'll handle him later though. I think they're here." The ambulance arrived and Grace rode with inside with her since she witnessed what happened. Taylor said that they would meet them at the hospital. Gabriella's mom had just arrived when the ambulance already left, and Taylor was getting into Gabriella's car.

"Taylor? What's going on?" Mrs. Montez asked as she got out of her car, which was parked behind Gabriella's by the sidewalk.

"Just follow me. There's no time right now." Taylor said and got into Gabriella's car. "Martin you can come sit up front." She turned to him, and he crawled into the front passenger seat. Mrs. Montez didn't know what was going on, but had no choice to do what Taylor said, and got into her car and followed Taylor to the hospital.

At the hospital, Grace had met Mrs. Montez, and explained everything. Mrs. Montez understood, and told her that it was okay that Martin could stay with them.

"Mrs. Montez?" A doctor called.

"Yes? That's me." Mrs. Montez got up and walked towards to doctor, followed by Grace, Taylor, and Martin.

"Gabriella is fine. The glass just caused her to head to bleed, but I'd like to keep her here for at least 2 days to make sure and run some tests."

"Okay."

"You can all go see her now if you like. She's still in a deep sleep though, but we expect her to wake up some time tonight."

"Thank you, doctor." Mrs. Montez said as they walked into Gabriella's room. She was sleeping when Mrs. Montez started to cry softly.

"I'm sorry this happened. It's all my fault." Grace said.

"No. It's not you're fault. Please don't blame yourself, it was all just a mistake." Mrs. Montez told her. She was always trying to look at things from an optimistic point of view. After about 2 hours, a nurse walked in and told them visiting hours were over.

"I'll see you in a little bit." Taylor said.

"It was nice to meet you." Grace told Mrs. Montez.

"It was nice meeting you also Grace, I'll see you in a few days too I expect?"

"Yeah, bye. Martin, you be good."

"Bye mom." Martin called out. Taylor left in Gabriella's car, and drove Grace home, while Martin wanted to ride home with Mrs. Montez.

* * *

In Gabriella's Car.

"Well, here we are." Taylor said as she parked outside. "Do you want me to go in with you?"

"No, I'm fine. I'll call if you guys if anything happens though."

"Alright, I'll see you later then."

"Bye." Grace said, and stepped out of the car.

Grace walked into her silent house.

"Tom?" She yelled throughout the house. "Are you still here?" His car was parked outside, so he had to be home. She walked upstairs slowly to her bedroom, and found him sitting on their bed facing the opposite direction.

"Tom?" She stood at the doorway. He slowly turned around and showed his tear stained face.

"Grace, I'm so sorry." He sobbed. "I didn't mean to... I know I haven't been treating you or Martin right... I'm just.. I'm so sorry." He put his face into his hands.

_All of this happening to Gabriella changed him? Just like that? Can I trust him though? What do I do now, he's a changed man. _Grace thought to herself

"Tom, she's alright. The doctors wanted to keep her a few nights though." She informed him.

"But still, I hurt her. I don't even know her. I don't even know who I am anymore. What kind of guy am I if I go and hurt people!"

"You need help." She said walking closer.

"I know. I already called. I'm taking anger management classes starting tomorrow morning."

_Wow, he did this all by himself?_ Grace thought. He was changing.

"I can't trust you right now. Not for a while at least." Tom just nodded, he understood that she couldn't trust him anymore. "It'll take some time. But I want you to go apologize to Gabriella when she wakes up, and to her mother."

* * *

In Mrs. Montez's Car

The first 5 minutes of the ride was silent, other than the radio playing softly.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Montez." Martin mutterd.

"For what sweetie? None of this is your fault."

"But--"

"No, it's not you're fault. Gabby is fine, and she'll be out in a few days. But until then you and I can get to know each other, okay?"

"Okay." Martin said as they pulled into the driveway. Taylor was pulling up behind them.

Taylor and Martin pulled out his bags from the back of Gabriella's trunk, and walked inside. Mrs. Montez was on the phone when they came inside, so they went upstairs to put his bags down. After a few minutes of talking, Mrs. Montez entered.

"Taylor? Would you like to stay while Gabby is in the hospital? I might need the help, and since you already know Martin and everything. I just got off the phone with your parents, they said it's fine. You can stay in the guest room, or Gabby's..."

"Yeah, sure. I'd love to help."

"Great, I'll go start dinner."

"Okay, well, I'm gonna head home really quick to get a few things."

"Alright." Mrs Montez said. "do you want to help me cook dinner?" She asked turning to Martin.

"Sure!" He jumped.

Taylor went home to get her things for school and some clothes. Martin helped Mrs. Montez cook dinner, and they got to know each other a little better. Taylor came back just as they were setting the table, and they ate. She decided to just sleep in one of the guest rooms because it felt weird to be in Gabriella's room without her. Martin slept in the other guest room.

* * *

"Hey you two! We're home!" Mr. Bolton called out as he entered the house.

"Wow, it's actually clean." Mrs. Bolton said slightly shocked.

"Hey, Mom, Dad, Aunt Rose" Troy greeted them as he came down the stairs with Brad following.

"Hey everyone!" Brad smiled and hugged his mom.

"So how was your guys' weekend?" Mrs. Bolton asked.

"Good. We did a lot of catching up." Troy said patting Brad's shoulder.

"Yeah, there's some Chinese food left in the kitchen." Brad offered.

"Well, I'm gonna call it a night... school tomorrow. Night everyone!" Troy said, and walked up to his room.

"Me too. Night." Brad said.

"You be good while you're here." Rose kissed her son.

"I will mom. Have fun at Grandma's"

"Hey Rose, your taxi is here." Jack said.

"Bye Mom.

* * *

Troy and Brad woke up, got ready and left for school. They met up with Chad and everyone else, but Brad left to go to the office to register.

Taylor got up and woke up Martin. They got ready and went downstairs to eat breakfast, and found Mrs. Montez on the phone again. After she hung up she looked at the two sitting at the table.

"Gabriella didn't wake up like they expected her to last night." Mrs. Montez said softly with tears about to fall.

"Oh my gosh." Taylor gasped.

"I'm going to be at the hospital all day. It's my day off..."

"I'll go with you." Taylor said getting up.

"Yeah, me too." Martin said.

"No, I want you two to go to school. You guys can visit after school."

"Alright. I guess we better get going since I still have to drop you off Martin."

"Okay..." He said and went to go get his things.

"Tell Gabby we say hi if she wakes up." Taylor hugged Mrs. Montez. "We'll see you later."

"Thanks Taylor. Bye."

Taylor and Martin left. She went to drop him off and made sure he got to class. Then she drove off to school. She started to cry a little as she pulled up into the parking lot, and sat in her car until the warning bell rang. She was too worried about Gabriella to talk to anyone.

"Hey, have you guys seen Taylor?" Chad asked as he took a seat in Mrs. Darbus' class.

"Nope." The gang replied.

"She's never late."

"Gabby isn't here either." Troy said looking at the two empty seats. Taylor walked into the class without saying a word, just as the last bell rang. They listened to the announcements, then as the bell rang, they filed out the door.

"Hey Tay!" Chad said as he caught up with her.

"Hey Chad." She smiled a bit.

"Something wrong? I mean you're never late to class. You're always early."

"I'll tell you later. I've got to get to class."

"Alright." Chad said and kissed her before she left. "Happy Valentine's Day."

"You too!" She smiled then ran off to class.

"Hey, man." Troy patted his friend on the back. "What's up with Taylor?"

"I don't know man." Chad said walking into their next class.

Their classes went by, and lunch finally came around. Taylor stayed in the halls to call Mrs. Montez.

"Hey, Mrs. Montez. So is she awake?"

"Yeah, she's awake now." Mrs. Montez said cheerfully. "But she's taking a nap right now."

"Really! Oh my gosh, thank goodness. Well, I'll see you afterschool then. Bye." Taylor let out a sigh of relief.

"Hey, it's Taylor right?" Jeremy said walking up to her.

"Oh, Hey. Yeah, It's Taylor." She smiled.

"Do you wanna have lunch with us?" Taylor asked.

"I was just about to ask you that. Camille said just go to the cafeteria, but she didn't say where."

"Alright let's get going." Taylor laughed.

* * *

"Finally." Brad said. He just got out of the office after registering his classes and everything. He had met up with Kevin inside as well.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Well, at least it's lunch."

"Yeah, let's go eat."

They were walking towards the cafeteria when they walked into Taylor and Jeremy.

"Do you guys know Troy Bolton?" Brad asked.

"Uhm, yeah. Kevin? Is that you?"

"Taylor?" Kevin smiled

"Oh my gosh! I haven't seen you in years! You were always my competition in math." They all laughed.

"I'm Brad. Troy's cousin." Brad extended his hand.

"No wonder, you look like him kinda." Taylor laughed. "Oh, this is my friend, Jeremy."

"Hey."

"Well, I guess we're all heading to the same table. C'mon." Taylor said as they entered the cafeteria, and made their way towards the gang. Troy spotted them as they walked towards the table, and saw Jeremy.

_That's the guy I saw with Gabby! _Troy thought as anger grew inside, but he hid it so no one else could see.

"OH. MY. GOSH!" Chad yelled. "MIKKO?"

"Yeah Chad, it's him. You act like he's a movie star..." Troy laughed and got up to say hi.

"Dude! How have you been!" Chad said as he hugged his old friend.

"Good. I've been back for a few days now."

"And you never called?"

"Troy said it would be fun to surprise you instead."

"You knew he was here?" Chad asked turning back to Troy.

"Yeah, we all chilled when you went out with Taylor." They all laughed. "I'm Troy by the way." Troy said to Jeremy, since no one introduced them two.

"Oh, so you're Troy. Nice to meet you, I'm Jeremy." Jeremy shook his hand.

After about a few minutes of catching up, Chad turned to Taylor.

"So what's up? I mean, you look fine now."

"I am. Sorry about earlier. I was just worried about Gabby." She said breaking her conversation with Jeremy.

"Why? What happened?" Sharpay said.

"Yeah." Everyone else muttered.

"She's in the hospital, but everything is fine now. It's a long story. She should be back tomorrow." Taylor said. The rest of lunch went by. All Troy could think about was Gabriella, and how it was Valentine's. He and the rest of the guys decided to wait on giving the necklaces to the girls since she wasn't there. He couldn't take her off his mind, so he just decided that he would go visit her after school. The rest of school went by quickly, and Taylor left to pick up Martin and went to the hospital. Troy stopped by a flower shop to get flowers.

Taylor and Mrs. Montez left Gabriella's room while she was sleeping since Martin got hungry.

Troy got to the hospital and found Gabriella's room. He took a deep breath, and looked up from his feet. He couldn't believe what he saw. Gabriella was inside laughing... with Jeremy by her side. Troy dropped the roses he picked out, and just walked away. Partly because of jealously, but more because of pain at the sight.

Taylor left the cafeteria, to go back and talk to Gabriella more. Martin and Mrs. Montez were finishing up their food. When she got to Gabriella's room, she found the roses Troy had dropped. The envelope had fallen out and she picked them up. Right when she got up Jeremy was leaving.

"Oh, hey Jeremy."

"Hey Taylor. I've gotta get going, I'll see you tomorrow." He smiled.

"Alright. Bye" She smiled, but turned her attention back to the roses and the card. She placed the card back into the little card holder. And walked into the room.

"Hey Gabby."

"Hey Tay."

"Where's my Mom and Martin?"

"Still eating. I didn't know Jeremy was here."

"Yeah he just came by check up on me."

"Oh, well I found these outside your door." Taylor said handing her the flowers. She smelled them and took out the card from the envelope, a bunch of small confetti hearts fell onto her bed as she opened it. She smiled and read the card.

_Hey Gabby,_

_Hope you feel better. Since Monday didn't work out, how about this coming Saturday? I'll see you at school. Happy Valentine's Day! Call me when you get out._

_Troy_

"He's so sweet." Gabriella said to herself softly and smiled.

* * *

In Troy's Car

"Are they going out or something?" Troy asked himself as he drove home. "Maybe. I should just give up. Some Valentine's day."

* * *

Yeah, I know you guys are mad that they didn't get together... But just wait till the sequel! HAHA. I'll post up a notice on this story when the sequel is up. Soo yeah, good story? LOL, soo many chapters for just a 3day weekend. Haha. Well, REVIEW! for the last time on this story.. Soo sad to see this end. Well, Hopefully you guys did enjoy it, and you do review. See you guys in the sequel...Bye!


	29. About the Sequel

Hey guys, the SEQUEL is UP! Okay, go check it out. Its called The Things I'd Do For You

BYEEE.


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